A married hedge fund manager accused of launching an “octopus”-like assault on a junior investment banker he found attractive has been cleared.

Crispin Odey nodded briefly at the district judge after he was found not guilty of one count of indecently assaulting the woman at his home in Chelsea in 1998, having invited her round while his pregnant wife was away.

Father-of-three Mr Odey, 62, admitted raising the possibility of sleeping with the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, but denied one count of indecent assault.

Returning his verdict at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, district judge Nicholas Rimmer said: “I am left unsure of (the complainant’s account) because despite the strength of her emotion and tears, her credibility has been thrown into question and her evidence is riddled with troubling inconsistencies.”

Giving evidence from the witness box Mr Odey said: “I am embarrassed to say if she had gone along with it, I would have gone further.”

Asked if he would have “taken the opportunity” to sleep with her that night, had it arisen, Mr Odey replied: “I might have … I don’t know, it didn’t happen.”

Defence counsel Crispin Aylett QC cited “contradictions” in her evidence and said she had a “natural tendency to embellish and exaggerate”, which he said made her “look like an unreliable historian”.