A FORMER trainee soldier has been cleared of repeatedly having sex with a schoolgirl in Accrington when he was an army cadet.

Daniel Cassidy, now 23, was found not guilty of three charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity by a Burnley Crown Court jury at the end of a four-day trial.

The defendant, of Maudsley Street, Accrington, who was represented at the hearing by Jeremy Lasker, was discharged from the dock by Recorder Nicholas Clarke, QC.

The prosecution had alleged Mr Cassidy had touched and kissed the girl and then had full intercourse with her in the school holidays.

The alleged offences were said to have taken place when he was 16, before he decided to join the Army.

The court was told the alleged victim told her friends what she claimed had gone on and police were contacted last year.

Mr Cassidy, a former pupil of Rhyddings High School, and who worked selling fruit and vegetables on Accrington market after he left the army at 17, told the court that what the girl alleged never happened.

The jury was told the defendant denied having any sexual contact with the girl when he was questioned by police.

He told officers he would not do what she had claimed.