IBRAHIM Gediklioglu has been cleared of a charge of attempted kidnap following a four-day trial as a jury returned a not guilty verdict after three hours of deliberation.

The 24-year-old had stood accused of jumping out of his car in Victoria Road and trying to drag a 19-year-old girl into the vehicle.

The victim had run down the street towards the nearest sanctuary at the Dream Lounge and called police at 4.09am on Saturday, March 21.

Mr Gediklioglu was arrested later that day at the kebab shop he runs in Cirencester, after CCTV from a mobile police van in Wood Street picked up his blue Volkswagen Passat making four passes of the area between 3am and 4am.

After lying to police repeatedly in interviews, Mr Gediklioglu eventually told the court he had hoped to pick up a sex worker when he spotted a lone female walking home that night.

He insisted he had never got out of his car, and inconsistencies were found between the description given by the victim and Mr Gediklioglu's appearance.

Jeremy Lynn, defending, said Mr Gediklioglu, of Grange Park, could not have been the offender, who was described as Chinese in origin, with no facial hair, wearing different clothes and seemingly driving a Renault Megane rather than the defendant’s Passat.

He said: “Is this a rather clumsy attempt to pick up a girl from the street, and having failed, driven off into the night?

“On any view his behaviour that evening was disgraceful. He had a new baby at home and should have gone home rather than cruising the streets of Swindon.

"This is her word against his about what happened on Victoria Road. The description given simply does not match the defendant.”

Speaking after the hearing Det Sgt Angela Shipp, of Swindon CID, said police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident, and reassured the public such cases are extremely rare locally.

"After a four day trial, the jury today have decided upon a not guilty verdict in the case of attempt kidnap against Ibrahim Gediklioglu," she said.

"The burden of proof in criminal cases is rightly extremely high and today the jury felt that this standard has not been met. Wiltshire Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.

"I would like to praise the victim in coming forward to report this incident to the police. We would also like to reassure members of the public that fortunately incidents such as this are very rare in Wiltshire."