A MAN accused of assault after allegedly beating a woman with a rope during a “master slave” sex session – inspired by the best selling erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” – has been found not guilty, a court has today heard.

A jury at Ipswich Crown Court returned their verdict at Ipswich Crown Court this afternoon.

During the trial the court heard Lock, 43, claim he and the woman had been inspired by the novel “Fifty Shades of Grey”, taking part in threesomes and bondage sessions after meeting on a dating website.

He told the court the pair had been discussing the role-play during which he would beat her, for several months.

Asked by defence counsel Roger Thomson if he and the victim had read “Fifty Shades of Grey”, Lock replied: “That’s where we got the idea from.”

Lock, of Plover Road, Ipswich, denied assaulting the woman causing her actual bodily harm on August 6 last year.

It was alleged that when the woman went to his home Lock put a rope round her neck and pulled it tight before padlocking her wrist to a chain fastened to his bedroom floor.

He then ordered the woman to bend over the bed and allegedly struck her 14 times with the rope, causing 14cm long bruises to her buttocks.

It is alleged that Lock hit the woman so hard she heard the rope “whistling”. She said she had screamed in pain. After the beating Lock had sex with her and left her chained up in his bedroom while he went on his computer.

Lock eventually gave the woman the padlock key and told her to leave. Police officers saw her in a distressed state in the street as they made their way to Lock’s home.

During a search of the premises officers discovered a monitor on the bedroom wall which relayed footage from CCTV cameras he had installed in each of the rooms.

Giving evidence, Lock said he and the woman had agreed to say the code word “red” if either of them felt uncomfortable with anything they were doing during sex but neither of them had ever used it.

He claimed he and the woman had agreed a “master/slave” fantasy for that weekend and it was the first time he had beaten her. “It was new ground,” he said.

He said he and the woman had both fully understood what was going to happen but he had felt bad after he had lashed her 14 times and saw that she was crying.

He denied putting a rope round her neck and pulling it tight but accepted that he had put a chain round the woman’s wrist.