Grant Quigley, 17, and co-accused Lee Doherty and Michael Murray, both 18, were acquitted of the charge following a week-long trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

The Crown had already accepted guilty pleas to lesser charges from Murray and Doherty but Quigley - a four-time Scottish champion in the ring - sat nervously in the dock as the jury returned yesterday from deliberations lasting just over an hour.

His friends and family, who had attended every day at court, gasped when the jury of eight women and seven men returned their majority verdict, while Quigley, dressed in a grey suit, shirt and tie, simply stared at the floor as the foreman announced the decision.

Quigley's mother wept outside the courtroom as relatives of all three accused hugged after the verdict.

Friends and family of the victim, who had also attended throughout the duration of the case, left the building stern-faced.

Despite being cleared of trying to kill the victim, Murray and Quigley still face likely prison sentences after pleading guilty to assaulting him to his permanent disfigurement and endangerment of life on a roundabout near Tesco in Brown Street.

Doherty could also face custody despite admitting a less serious charge of assaulting a female friend of the man and smashing her mobile phone.

However, all three were allowed to retain their liberty meantime as judge Lord Glennie granted them bail while background reports are prepared.

He said: "In the very unusual circumstances of this case and having listened to what has been said on your behalf, I will allow these reports to be prepared at your homes." Asking for bail on Quigley's behalf, QC Joe Barr had described the 17-year-old as 'a man of good character' and handed a number of personal references to the bench.

Doherty's solicitor, QC Thomas Ross, said he would be asking the court to look at an alternative to custody for his client.

All three will travel to the High Court in Edinburgh on 29 February to be sentenced.

The court was told that the trio all appeared as first offenders, hearing that Murray had been badly affected by being the victim of bullying at school at the hands of the victim and his friends.

The court also heard Quigley had been bullied by the complainer while a schoolboy.

Quigley last year won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games and has also won two British boxing titles. He had been expected to challenge for a place in Scotland's 2014 Commonwealth Games team.

Quigley, of Hillside Drive, and Michael Murray, of Benview Road, both Port Glasgow, were cleared with attempting to murder their victim on 20 November 2010.

However they both admitted repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body, causing him to fall to the ground, before repeatedly punching and kicking him for a second time before repeatedly jumping and stamping on his head and body, all to his severe injury and to the danger of the man's life.

Both, along with Doherty, of St Mary's Wynd, Stirling, will return to court at the end of the month.

Trial centred around CCTV footage

THE six-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow centred around CCTV footage of the brutal attack which had been captured on Tesco supermarket security cameras.

The two-minute-long section of film showed Grant Quigley and Michael Murray punching and kicking the victim as he lay on the ground in Brown Street.

It was played to every witness who gave evidence during the case.

The Crown looked to use it to prove the three accused had acted with murderous intent, while defence teams looked to use it to prove their clients had acted in self-defence.

The trial heard from the victim, who claimed he had been set upon by Quigley, Murray and Lee Doherty after a heated exchange.

He said: "We all began fighting and next thing I was surrounded by the three of them.

"I felt a blow to the head and that was it, I was knocked out. Next thing I knew I was waking up in hospital.

"I had no memory of anything at all for about a week." An eyewitness told the trial how had gone to the man's aid after the three accused fled the scene, describing the victim's face as resembling 'a burst tomato' because it was drenched in so much blood.

Other bystanders told how they looked on horrified as the attack unfolded, admitting that they thought the victim had been killed.

A doctor at Inverclyde Royal Hospital told how he treated the victim on his arrival at accident and emergency, saying that he had suffered only a series of cuts, swelling and bruising as a result of the flurry of blows.

Quigley confessed in the witness box to assaulting the man, admitting that he was deeply ashamed of his conduct.

He said: "I am totally disgusted and ashamed of myself.

"I wish I had never done it. I regret it every day." The teen told the jury he had acted in self-defence, believing that the man was armed with a blade.

He said: "He had ran at me and reached around his back. I thought he had a knife.

"He said he was going to stab my eye and batter me like he had battered my brother." Murray also admitted his part in the assault, although both maintained that they had never intended to kill the 19-year-old.