A Bristol trainee animator has spoken of his relief after being cleared of raping a student.

Kevin Liew, who is from Malaysia and studied animation at the University of the West of England, told Bristol Crown Court he followed the woman into her room and they kissed and cuddled before he briefly had sex with her.

He told a jury he stopped intimacy because it was unprotected and she looked tired.

He said the woman then turned away from him, made him feel like he had raped her, and told him to get out of her home.

Mr Liew, 23, of Crow Lane, Bristol, denied rape in March.

A jury of seven women and five men took about two hours to unanimously acquit him.

He told the Bristol Evening Post: "I feel relieved. It has been agony.

"I don't know what she was thinking.

"It's all up to her and I've no idea why she behaved like that."

Mr Liew told the court that initially he thought he had hurt the woman.

He said: "She said 'I trusted you' and I said 'If I've hurt you, sorry'.

"She said I shouldn't have done it and I said 'Did I hurt you?'

"She didn't answer that. She was speaking very softly and she told me to go. That brought more confusion; I was sitting there speechless."

Mr Liew said he left the woman's room and rang his friend to tell him what had happened.

When he returned to the woman's room she started crying and it made him feel as if he had raped her, he said.

He told the jury: "I didn't know what to do. I asked her why she was crying and I said 'If you feel like reporting it to the police you can do it'. She didn't respond to that. I didn't think that I had raped her; I didn't want her to cry. I just wanted to console her."

Mr Liew said the woman then gave a "sarcastic smile", laughed and punched him in the face.

He told how he still tried to console her and again suggested she could call the police if it would make her feel better.

The court heard that eventually Mr Liew left the woman's home and was arrested in the city centre in Crow Lane.