A worker has been cleared of a sex attack on his ex partner after telling a jury she had invented her story to try to get him out of the house which they shared.
The 40-year-old had been in a relationship with the woman for about nine years and they had a daughter together but had split up five months before the incident last year.
They had bought and set up a home together despite him speaking only a few words of English and her speaking no Polish but their unusual arrangement ended in violence and recrimination.
The police had already been called to the house in Tiverton four times in the weeks before the woman alleged her ex boyfriend had tried to sexually assault her.
The couple had not been talking for months and she had moved into her daughter's bedroom while he slept in the main one which they had previously shared together.
She went to a solicitor to try to get him evicted but was told it was impossible because they were joint owners and he had just as much right to live there as he did.
The final confrontation followed a bizarre incident the night before in which he put three pills in a pot of spaghetti bolognese which she was cooking.
She thought he was trying to poison her and removed them, wrapped them in kitchen paper and put them in her handbag with the intention of taking them to the police the next day.
The man, who claimed the pills were a harmless cold remedy, realised what she was planning. He found them in her bag and flushed them down the toilet.
She discovered they were missing the next day and went to his bedroom to confront him. At this point they gave completely different accounts of what happened.
She said he grabbed her, forced her onto the bed, pulled down her knickers, and sexually assaulted her by rubbing himself against her from behind.
He said she shouted at him, threw items around the room in a fury, then suddenly changed her attitude and took all her clothes off. She then started screaming and he put his hand over her mouth to stop her waking their daughter.
He told a jury at Exeter Crown Crown Court he believed she had set him up with the intention of getting him arrested and banned from returning to the house, which is exactly what happened.
The father-of-one, from Tiverton, denied battery with intent to commit a sexual assault and was found not guilty. He admitted the lesser charge of simple battery which related to him putting his hand over her mouth, leaving scratches on her face.
He was conditionally discharged by Judge Erik Salomonsen. He told him:"You say you put your hand over the victim's mouth to stop her screaming and waking your daughter.
"Whether that was or was not the reason does not affect the sentence, which is determined by the minor nature of the injuries she sustained and the bad blood there had been between you, which had resulted in the police being called three times by her and once by you.
"In view of your good character and guilty plea and the fact that the house has now been sold and other than your daughter there is no reason for contact between you, I shall impose a conditional discharge."
The Judge urged the man to seek legal advice about how to arrange visits to his daughter.
During the case the defendant, who needed a Polish interpreter, said he worked at a perfume factory in Tiverton and had been in a relationship with the victim for almost a decade.
He said:"I did not intend to sexually assault her. I did not intend to rape her. I thought she wanted to do it and do not remember her saying no.
"I did not want to have any more contact with her but she went in there so she could accuse me. She wanted to have something with which she could get at me."
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