An ambulance worker has been cleared of sexually touching a drunk girl while he was taking her to hospital in Huddersfield.

Dale Kirby, 35, who is now quadraplegic, appeared over a video link from bed for his trial at Leeds Crown Court.

He was unanimously found not guilty by a jury on two charges of assault by digital penetration.

The nine man and three woman jury was told at the start of the trial last week by Judge Christopher Batty that Kirby, then an emergency medical technician, had sustained substantial physical injuries since the proceedings against him began.

Leeds Combined Courts, Crown Court.

They were not told he suffered the injuries in June last year when he jumped off a bridge at Mann Dam, Cleckheaton, while a previous jury was considering verdicts on the charges against him.

The jury at the first trial failed to reach verdicts on the two charges without knowing why he was absent. Reporting restrictions prevented details being revealed.

The retrial jurors were told by Judge Batty he was not able to come to court, that there would be frequent breaks in the trial for periods when Kirby was receiving medication or was drowsy because of his condition.

Ambulance technician Dale Kirby

Kirby’s evidence in his defence was also filmed in advance at his home to be played to the jury in court.

After the verdicts the judge thanked them for their patience in an unusual situation “but it is important that justice has come to a conclusion and seen to be done.

“You have probably been part of a fairly unique experience.”

The jury heard the complainant who was 18 and drunk was being taken to hospital in the early hours of November 30, 2014 with a friend.

She claimed Kirby, then operating from Brighouse ambulance station, twice put his hand up her dress while she was lying on a stretcher and intentionally touched her intimately with his fingers.

Kirby, then of Huddersfield, told Leeds Crown Court he accidentally touched her once when he tried to protect her modesty and was thrown off balance by the movement of the ambulance.

She was on a stretcher sometimes calm and other times thrashing about and he said she started hitching up her dress.

He said he told her not to and at first just covered her with a blanket but because of her movements it came off exposing her bottom.

He said he did not want to get to the accident and emergency like that when the door opened and reached over to grab her knickers and pull them up.

“I was simply trying to adjust her clothing to protect her modesty.”

He told the jury it was as a combination of the movement of the ambulance and the girl moving he lost his balance and made contact between her legs. He realised his hand had gone between her legs and said sorry to her. That had only happened once and denied it was deliberate.