A HOSPITAL worker charged with sexually assaulting a patient has been cleared.

Marcio Ricardo, of Cowley Road, Oxford, had always denied the single count of sexual assault on the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

As the jury of four women and eight men acquitted him of the charge at Oxford Crown Court on Friday the 30-year old smiled in relief and made the sign of the cross on his chest.

During the trial the court heard that the domestic worker had visited a patient, the alleged victim, in her room on two days on June 22 and June 23 last year.

Prosecutors had argued that Mr Ricardo had made a lewd remark at the girl, telling her that she 'had a nice body' the first time he saw her.

The following day, the court heard, he again visited the patient in the morning and allegedly sexually assaulted her by first hugging her and rubbing her back and then kissing her on the side of the face.

Taking to the witness box the alleged victim told jurors that the apparent attack made her feel ‘extremely uncomfortable’ and added: “I felt really nervous and I didn’t know what to do because I had never been in that situation to know what to do.”

Dismissing the charge, the jury took three hours and 50 minutes to find Mr Ricardo not guilty of the offence of sexual assault as the three-day trial came to an end on Friday.

Addressing the jury Judge Nigel Daly thanked them for their service and said: "It is a very important duty to perform because if you didn't the criminal justice system simply could not exist."