A NATIONAL Hunt jockey has been found not guilty of drink driving in the Cotswolds.

Irish jump jockey Killian Moore closed his eyes with relief after magistrates at Cheltenham magistrates court cleared him of drink driving.

Mr Moore, of Dunmore Navan, County Meath, Ireland, crashed his Audi A4 on February 2 last year, on the B4078 at Dumbleton, Gloucestershire.

He walked two miles to a friend’s house where he was given rum to cope with the shock of the accident, the court heard.

Police arrived at the house and breathalysed Mr Moore who was found to have 59 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

Mr Moore was arrested by police officers.

The legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol.

In a written statement Mrs Jacqueline Ross said that the jockey rented a cottage near to her home and called at 9.45pm that evening in a state of shock.

“He was crying,” the statement read and “he did not appear to be drunk.”

Mrs Ross and her husband Malcolm went to the scene of the accident, returning to the house later, Mrs Ross found her son and the jockey drinking Captain Morgan’s spiced rum.

In the police interview Mr Moore said that he had had one pint of lager in a pub earlier before buying a bottle of Peroni lager from a nearby shop. The bottle was later found by police in the crashed car.

Mr Moore also told police that he had been drinking rum and coke with Ian Ross after the accident.

Defending solicitor Dermot Clarke told the court that the case rested on an expert’s report which had been accepted in full by the prosecution.

Magistrates said that, in this case, the burden of proof rested with the defence and that “on the balance of probabilities” they accepted the conclusion of the report and found the defendant not guilty.