A LABOURER accused of threatening to stab a woman if she refused sex has been acquitted of all charges against him. Richard Sharpe, of Chippenham Road, Harold Hill, was cleared of robbery, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence and

A LABOURER accused of threatening to stab a woman if she refused sex has been acquitted of all charges against him.

Richard Sharpe, of Chippenham Road, Harold Hill, was cleared of robbery, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence and assault by beating. He had denied the charges.

It was alleged he dragged a woman into a ditch and said: "I'm going to rape you and if you don't do as I say, I'm going to stab you in the neck."

The 26-year-old was then said to have robbed her of two mobiles, leaving the woman bloodied and bruised, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Police arrested him after he answered a call on one of the handsets 15 hours later.

Mr Sharpe told jurors he had the woman's mobile after buying it from a friend the day after the alleged attack on September 9, 2007.

Mr Sharpe said: "I've got loads of phones. I have got a fetish for phones, I guess. I've got 10 or so in a sweet tin in my bedroom.'

Asked why the woman's phone was found in his bed sheets, he replied: "There was no credit on it and I had put it to charge. It was in my bedclothes next to my remote [control]."

Mr Sharpe said he was at a friend's house and walked home at 3am.

He denied meeting and attacking the woman after she got off a bus with friends in Hilldene Avenue, Harold Hill, and made her way home on her own.

He said: "I had nothing whatsoever to do with the assault.