Ched Evans has admitted that he is "overwhelmed with relief" after being found not guilty of raping a teenage girl in 2011.
A jury at Cardiff's Crown Court found the 27-year-old innocent with less than three hours' deliberation following a two-week retrial hearing.
Evans had spent two-and-a-half years in jail between 2012 and 2014 after being convicted for the incident in a Welsh hotel but continued to protest his innocence and was granted a retrial in April when the original ruling was quashed by the Appeals court.
In a short statement read by his lawyer outside court this afternoon, Evans said: "In the early hours of May 30, 2011 an incident occurred in North Wales that was to change my life and the lives of others for ever. That incident did not involve the commission of a criminal offence and today I am overwhelmed with relief that the jury agreed.
"I would like to thank my legal team, Judy Khan QC and David Emanuel of Garden Court Chambers, London and Shaun Draycott of Draycott Browne Solicitors, Manchester, for their tireless efforts upon my behalf.
"Thanks go, too, to my friends and family; most notably my fiancée, Natasha, who chose, perhaps incredibly, to support me in my darkest hour.
"Whilst my innocence has now been established, I wish to make it clear that I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone who might have been affected by the events of the night in question."
Evans will now resume his football career with League One outfit Chesterfield.
Neil Wilkes
