FORMER Pars star Craig Reid has been cleared of attacking his ex-girlfriend at his flat days before Christmas.

Reid, 30, was accused of elbowing Natasha Munro on the face and restricting her breathing by grabbing her by a t-shirt.

It was alleged his temper flared at his flat in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, when she had received a text message from another man, weeks after he learned she had cheated on him.

Reid denied the allegation and claimed Miss Munro suffered a nose injury accidentally while he was trying to get her phone from her.

Reid, from Irvine, Ayrshire, stood trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court where he was cleared of assaulting Miss Munro to her injury on December 21, 2014, at Errol Court, Glasgow.

Sheriff Alan Miller said: “There are a number of significant unanswered questions about what did or did not happen.”

Miss Munro, 27, described her relationship with Reid as “volatile and pretty poor” at the time and said they were both at the stage they didn’t know what they wanted.

She claimed that after going back to his flat she took a picture to send on the Snapchat application on his phone but that he took it from her.

The account manager said that around 3am, she got a text from a colleague and Reid “grabbed her phone”.

She told the court things “escalated” and she was “crouched on the edge of the bed trying to cover her head”.

Miss Munro told procurator fiscal depute Stuart Faure that Reid was “almost on top of her punching in to her”.

She claimed she suffered a bloodied nose although doesn’t know exactly how that happened.

She said: “I was crying, obviously I was upset, shocked. I didn’t know how I got to this situation.”

She also claimed something was thrown at her head and that Reid threw a glass of water over her.

Miss Munro said: “Not only was I hurt and bleeding, I was soaked.

“During this time, I was screaming for help because I knew his friends were in the flat. I was shouting on Jamie, I shouted and shouted.”

She also claimed Reid pulled her by a purple T-shirt of his that she had put on over her dress, which was ripped, to save her being so exposed.

The court was told that after reporting the alleged attack in January, it took until March before she gave her dress to the police.

It was also heard that Miss Munro spent a number of nights at Reid's flat over the festive period, after the alleged incident.

During a police interview, months after the incident, Reid gave officers a full account of the incident.

He said Miss Munro had come back to the flat they once shared in the Gorbals although she had moved out after he found out she had cheated on him.

Reid - now with Icelandic team Keflavik - claimed they lay chatting and were going to sleep when she received a text message and he wanted to see her phone.

He told police: “At this point I’m immediately thinking, she’s cheating again, I wanted to try and get her phone and read her messages.”

Reid said: “She grabbed me from behind, obviously I’m trying to get away, she was shouting on my mate to get him in”.

The court heard he must have accidentally hit her on the nose while trying to get her phone.

He told how he “felt bad” and didn’t intentionally hurt her and never would and that afterwards she told him she was drunk and couldn’t remember what happened.

Reid said that after the incident, Miss Munro ended things with him completely in a text message in January 2015.

Reid joined the Pars in January 2016 after being released by Motherwell and played 13 times, including two substitute appearances, as Athletic won the League One title last season.