Ex-banker Sean Fitzpatrick formally acquitted at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court

It follows yesterday’s decision by Judge John Aylmer to direct the jury to acquit.

A judge has told former banker and bankrupt Sean Fitzpatrick he is a free man after directing a jury to find him not guilty of fraud.

The ex-chairman of the defunct Anglo Irish Bank had been on trial for the last 126 days accused of "artificially reducing" personal loans for a few weeks around the end of the financial year so their full value was not shown in accounts.