He is also cleared of lying, or intending to deceive, which was the most damaging personal charge against him and which allows him to say he emerges without a stain on his character.

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Mr Jarman told the court he had conducted experiments to test this theory - but he never achieved a similar stain.

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And yet, his long-term perspective provided a strong moral framework, a context to judge how dark a stain was compared to the one he sought to erase.

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"It was a bad stain on American history, " he said.

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"That cast a stain on the event, " he said.

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He said domestic abuse was "abhorrent and a stain on Scotland", saying there were over 51, 900 incidents of domestic abuse recorded by police in 2009 - 10.

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If you see a guy wearing a wrinkled suit and a tie with a big soup stain on it, you don't remember what shoes he wore.

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He looked tired and drab, his eyes rimmed with dark circles, a reddish stain disfiguring his crisp white polo shirt.

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The revelation that he had misled the Commons Transport Select Committee over the timing of discussions about Railtrack's future was another stain on his already tarnished reputation.

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