A MAN accused of keeping a prostitute prisoner in his home and twice raping her at knifepoint has been cleared of all charges.

Geoffrey Jones, of Atherton, was cleared of one of the rapes on Tuesday. He was not present in the dock when the final two not guilty verdicts were returned on Wednesday, as he had refused to come from the cells.

When the jury announced they had their first verdict on Tuesday, 43-year-old Mr Jones became upset and refused to listen and was taken downstairs by the dock security officers.

After further deliberations yesterday, the jury found him not guilty by a majority verdict of false imprisonment and rape. Judge David Boulton agreed that he could be discharged.

Mr Jones, of Milton Close, who had denied all three charges, claimed that she had consented to have sexual intercourse with him.

The prosecution alleged that Mr Jones picked up the 30-year-old woman in Bolton's red light area in Shiffnall Street at 11.20pm on February 16 and she agreed to go back to his home for a couple of hours for £40.

Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, alleged that Mr Jones then grabbed hold of her by the hair and held a kitchen knife to her throat.

He is alleged to have taken her to his bedroom and threatened her with the knife and ordered her to strip which she did, but left on her boots as she had money in them. He was alleged to have raped her twice, said Miss Thomson.

When officers arrived Mr Jones was out in the street near a telephone kiosk and he said he had been trying to contact them, "because he had had some female in his house who was now crying rape and that they should know about it". Mr Jones denied the allegations and told the jury that she approached him and asked him for a lift to Wigan in return for sex and he agreed. They had consensual sex and he denied that he had threatened her at knifepoint.

He said that afterwards she said she had changed her mind about wanting to go to Wigan and instead wanted him to pay for the sex. He told her he did not have any money and went into the kitchen to make her a cup of tea and she ran out.