TWO Greenock men who had been accused of petrol and car-ramming attacks in Gourock have been cleared by a jury.

The panel of nine women and six men took just more than an hour to find Andrew Mulholland and Sean McGartland not guilty.

Mr Mulholland, 26, had been charged with squirting petrol over a 53-year-old woman and threatening to torch her.

His co-accused, 31, was said to have repeatedly slammed a silver-coloured BMW into a car driven by the woman's husband following an alleged dangerous pursuit in the town.

But the jury didn't believe the accounts given by the couple following stern cross-examination of their evidence by lawyers David Tod and Aidan Gallagher.

At one point Mr Tod, representing Mr Mulholland, flatly accused the woman of 'lying'.

She said she had been a passenger in her husband's red Corsa, along with their 25-year-old son, when a minor collision in a car park off Tarbet Street led to the 'very frightening' incident on April 29 last year.

However, it emerged during the trial that the bodywork of the BMW had been damaged by having been struck with an implement — and the Corsa had a golf club and a garden rake within it.

Mr Mulholland told Greenock Sheriff Court that he had merely thrown Lucozade over the woman because it was all he had to hand while the BMW was being battered.

Earlier a police witness, with 30 years of road traffic experience, said that there was clear collision damage on both cars and that they had impacted with each other.

The officer said that, when the vehicles were put together, the crash points on them 'fitted like a jigsaw'.

But he added: "All I can say is that, in my opinion, those two cars came into contact with each other, but how they came into contact I don't know."

The officer agreed with solicitor Mr Gallagher that other damage to the BMW was a result of it being struck with something.

The petrol attack claim woman's husband said the Corsa was rammed so hard that its front wheels 'snapped inwards' and the 'steering was gone'.

But he managed to drive it from Manor Crescent to Shore Street, where he was spotted by a CCTV camera placing the golf club and rake inside the door of a common close.

The man claimed he wanted to keep the items nearby in case Mr Mulholland and Mr McGartland came after him.

Lawyer Mr Tod asked a barman: "If someone wanted to keep the rake and golf club handy, could they have got them any further away from the front door?"

The witness replied: "No."

The jury decided unanimously that Mr Mulholland, of Fintry Road, Greenock, was innocent on the petrol assault allegation.

They found Mr McGartland, of the town's Balloch Road, not guilty by majority of dangerous driving, pursuing the Corsa and repeatedly striking it with the BMW.