A Hawick man has been cleared of leaking an "extreme" sex tape which went viral.

Greg Halfpenny, 25, had been accused of obtaining a 34-year-old woman's mobile phone at a boozy party at her home in Hawick, and sending five fetish videos featuring her and a man she was having an affair with.

But during a trial at Jedburgh Sheriff Court, the Crown announced they were no longer seeking a conviction after leading evidence from the second witness in the case.

Accordingly Sheriff Kevin Duffy told Halfpenny he was being acquitted of both charges against him and found not guilty.

Speaking from the witness box, the woman claimed that she had given her phone to a female friend so they could Snapchat another woman to join their party at around 2am.

She said Halfpenny, who was also at the party, got hold of the phone and refused to give it back for a couple of minutes which is when it is alleged he accessed her stored videos and forwarded it onto to the woman they had been Snapchatting.

The 34-year-old mum said: "I had given my phone to a friend to make a phone call and Greg grabbed it from her.

"I knew what videos were on the phone so I asked for it back and he handed it to me.

"He had the phone for a couple of minutes - enough time for him to send the video to people.

"I only realised what he had done when I got a text from a pal at 5.30am saying, 'Oh my god,. I can't believe you would let someone do that'."

The 34-year-old mum told the trial this happened during the early hours of Sunday, December 29, 2018, and initially thought it had only gone to one person and would be deleted.

But by the following Thursday she realised it had gone viral and on the Friday she reported the matter to the police.

She told the trial she had a three-year affair with the 50-year-old man and speaking about the videos filmed in 2017 said: "It was me and another guy who was in a relationship at the time and we had been having an affair and the videos were of quite an extreme content.

"My world crashed as I realised the whole world would see it."

Asked to sum up the impact the video being leaked had her on life the woman replied: "I have been subjected to absolute hell.

"I have been mocked on the street and received hate mail.

"I have been called a home wrecker and told I will never be welcome in Hawick.

"I can't even have a night out in Hawick and still get abuse."

Defence lawyer Stephanie Clinkscale questioned the woman's version of events particularly the time her client would have needed to have found the videos on her phone, send them and delete any evidence of the messages being sent.

She also asked the woman about the suggestion that she had been showing the videos to the people at the party and "bragging because of who the person was in the video".

The woman immediately replied, 'that's lies'.

There was also conflicting evidence from the two witnesses about the number of people at the party - the woman saying there were four and her friend saying seven.

The 25-year-old second witness - who admitted drinking two bottles of wine before going out to a pub and a nightclub - said she had used her woman's phone to Snapchat a friend to invite her to the party.

She said she did not know what happened with the phone after that.

Prosecutor Jack Caster said that after considering the evidence the Crown were no longer seeking a conviction in the matter and Sheriff Duffy said he was formally acquitted of both charges.

Halfpenny of Guthrie Drive, had pleaded not guilty at Jedburgh Sheriff Court to two charges of disclosing a film showing a man and a woman in an 'intimate situation'.

It had been claimed he sent intimate videos over social media without consent and in doing so intended to cause them fear, alarm or distress.