A FORMER taxi driver was acquitted today of the murder of Liverpool sex worker Anne Marie Foy.

David Butler, 64, was cleared of killing the mum-of-four in 2005 by a Crown Court jury who deliberated for more than 10 hours after a three week trial.

As the verdict was delivered there were cheers from the public gallery where Mr Butler's friends and family were sat.

Anne Marie’s daughters, Carly and Suzanne, bursit into tears and left the courtroom quickly after the forewoman announced the verdict.

Frail Butler, who has COPD (formally known as emphysema) and needs the help of an inhaler to breath and a stick to walk, was taken back down to the cells to collect his things before being freed.

The former Hackney cab driver, of Albert Grove, Wavertree, was arrested in 2010, more than five years after the murder.

The case hinged on a partial DNA profile found thanks to developments in science.

The prosecution could never say 100% the DNA found on evidence at the scene of the murder was that of Mr Butler.

They said it was more than “a thousand billion times” more likely to be Mr Butler’s DNA than anyone else’s but experts for the defence queried the validity of the findings during the trial.