A man who filmed himself having sex with a woman while she slept and then uploaded the footage to Facebook has been cleared of rapes charges by a jury of his peers.

Stephen Brawn, 22, confessed to police that he both did the deed and uploaded video of the act to his Facebook page, but claimed the woman had agreed to allow him to have sex with her sleeping body and to record the intercourse so she could watch it later.

The woman told a different story, claiming she never consented to either the sex or the recording and certainly not to having the footage posted on Brawn's Facebook page.

"She says she wouldn't have consented to sex between them being videoed while she was asleep," Prosecutor Charles Myatt told a jury of eight men and women at the Ipswich Crown Court in Ipswich, England.

But Brawn insists that not only did the woman consent, she even asked to watch the video upon waking, and then proceeded to have sex with him again.

When asked by his own attorney why he uploaded the video to Facebook, Brawn responded, "I don't know."

The unemployed transient was arrested on June 4 and charged with rape.

Brawn told the court he laughed when police picked him up because he couldn't believe he was being accused of rape.

Brawn claimed he and the woman had been exchanging intimate photos for a time before engaging in intercourse, and he had filmed her at least once before performing fellatio on him.

Judge John Devaux instructed the jury to ignore the fact that Brawn had uploaded the footage to Facebook, and focus on the rape allegations.

"He is charged with rape and you won't convict him simply because he put footage of the act on Facebook," the judge is quoted as saying. It took the jury one hour to return a not guilty verdict.

"This case should never have gone to court if the police had done their job properly," Brawn said upon his release.

He said police should have looked at the woman's cellphone, which would have proved they had an ongoing sexting relationship.

[photo via Facebook]