A REDDITCH taxi driver has been cleared by a jury of sexual assaulting a university student.

Former teacher Shamim Ahmed, aged 37, of Studley Road, had been accused of pinning the young woman against his taxi and kissing her on the left side of the neck.

But the jury at Worcester Crown Court took just 50 minutes to decide, unanimously, that he was innocent.

Mohammad Hafeez, prosecuting, said the Redditch student had been for a night on the town with friends after coming home from university on October 3 last year.

She decided to go home when she felt tired after drinking four pints of lager and two vodka shots and a friend got a taxi for her from the town centre.

Mr Hafeez alleged that, when Ahmed stopped the car near her home, she climbed out of the taxi and "stumbled" into his arms.

She told the jury that he said he wanted to kiss her.

She claimed that, when she refused, he pinned her against the car and kissed the left side of her neck.

Cross-examined by Alison Scott-Jones, defending, she said she was fully aware of what was happening.

"After a long day, you were tired, drunk and confused and simply misinterpreted what had taken place," suggested Miss Scott-Jones.

In a statement to police, Ahmed denied saying he was going to kiss the girl and that, when she got out of the car, she looked as though she was going to fall and embraced him.

Ahmed, who is married and the father of a four-year-old son, had denied sexual assault.