A celebrity accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old girl when he was 27 has been acquitted on all charges.
The man had pleaded not guilty to three counts of engaging in sexual acts with a child under the age of 17 at locations in Dublin on dates between August 2010 and December 2010.
The jury had been deliberating for more than five and a half hours since yesterday.
After the verdicts were delivered the man became emotional as he hugged his parents outside court.
At the opening of the trial last week prosecuting counsel Eilis Brennan told the jury the accused was charged with the offence of defilement of a child.
She explained that the term which she said was "a rather old-fashioned one" means performing certain sexual acts with a child under the age of 17.
A person charged with the offence of defilement cannot be identified unless convicted, and only then if it would not identify the complainant.
She said the charge was brought under the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act of 2006 which makes it an offence to perform such acts and was there to protect children.
The complainant told the court she had met the man at the Oxegen music festival in 2010 and that he passed his phone to her so she could enter her phone number.
She said they got to know each other in the following weeks by text message and at first she told him she was 18 but later "came clean" and revealed she was only 16.
She said the man told her he was 27 and she was too young. She thought he would not talk to her again and it would be the end of it.
However, she said the following day he sent her a text asking if she could keep a secret.
The woman said she later met the man in person and he took her to his workplace where they had oral sex in a fire escape stairwell.
She outlined two other occasions when she said similar activity took place at his home.
The woman said at all times the sexual contact was consensual and that a casual sexual relationship continued after she had turned 17.
The defendant had denied all the charges and said the girl did not reveal her true age until after she had turned 17.
He said no sexual activity took place until she was over 18 and he did not know why she had made the allegations against him.
The prosecution had urged the jury to convict on all three charges.
Ms Brennan told the jury the man gave an account which was "unbelievable and riddled with inconsistencies".
She said the only plausible and coherent version of events was the one given by the complainant who she described as an "honest, credible and compelling witness".
Ms Brennan told the jury the prosecution's case was quite straightforward and ultimately the jury would be looking at the credibility of the complainant and the defendant and in that assessment would have to consider that one of them was not telling the truth.
She said the complainant had key details about the defendant’s life yet on his account he had only met her a couple of times during the period in question.
Ms Brennan said the defendant was faced with a compelling account from the complainant and had "crafted a narrative" to explain it away. She said in doing so he had "made a few mistakes and a few blunders".
The defence had urged the jury to acquit on all charges and said the defendant had given a more plausible account of events and had backed it up with records.
He had willingly given pin numbers to gardaí who seized nine phones from his home during a search.
Defence Counsel Morgan Shelley said the jury was making the most important decision about a man "whose life hangs in the balance".
He told the jury his client would never work again if convicted.
Mr Shelley also said the complainant in the case had "laid fantasy over reality" in her allegations and said just because she had told a friend about one of the incidents it did not make the story true.
