A Metropolitan Police officer has been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman while on duty after claiming his DNA may have ended up on her breast because she shook his hand.

Pc Fabian Aguilar-Delgado, 40, told a jury he was “disgusted” by the allegations he kissed, groped and sucked the complainant’s breast while in full uniform on a call-out to her home over a domestic incident.

The Spanish-born officer, who worked as cabin crew for Ryanair and Norwegian Airlines before joining the Met in 2019, denied a single count of sexual assault on May 24 2020.

Mr Aguilar-Delgado, who was suspended by the Met, was acquitted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.

The woman told the jury that the officer French-kissed her, put his hands down her top and sucked her breast after offering to search her house for her abusive ex-partner while his colleague was in the car outside.

The court heard that Mr Aguilar-Delgado’s DNA was later found on swabs on the woman’s right nipple and breast.

Giving evidence last week, he said he was “shocked” and thought it was “impossible” when he was first told about the discovery.

Asked how he thought his DNA got onto the woman’s breast, the Pc said he had been close to her “talking loudly” and “maybe spitting or coughing”, as well as “touching handles” in her house in Croydon, south London.

He also suggested the transfer may have been as a result of her shaking his hand.

“The way she grabbed and shook my hand to say thank you, it wasn’t like a normal handshake,” he said.

“She just put the full arm in and grabbed it.”

The officer said that his hands were “sweaty” because it was a hot day and he had been biting his fingernails.

A video of a reconstruction of the alleged handshake was played in court and Mr Aguilar-Delgado showed his chewed-down nails to the jury.

“I remember that she went back and I don’t know if she touched herself to pull her top up,” he said.