THREE Southampton men have been acquitted of rape allegations at the city Crown Court, following a ten-day trial.

Jurors took three-and-a-half hours to clear David Twamley, Marcus Fagg and Jamie Cole, who had each denied two charges of rape and one of sexual assault.

The prosecution claimed that the trio had sexually abused a woman in an alley beside a city centre pub.

Twamley, 23, of Rudd Way; Fagg, 22, of Steep Close and Cole, 21, of Tytherley Road, maintained that they had sex with her consent.