A LEADING scout official has been cleared of one charge of indecent assault but a jury has still to reach verdicts on 14 other charges he faces.

Divorced father of five Kevin Pilling is accused of subjecting three boys to systematic sex abuse over a period of around four years.

It is alleged that the offences were committed while he was deputy commissioner of the scout movement in Lancaster.

The prosecution claimed that Pilling, whose address cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, had selected three boys, all of whom were members of the scouts, for sexual abuse, one of whom had been raped almost every week.

Two of the boys were said to have been abused at scout camps in Northumberland and Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

Preston Crown Court heard that the boys had not known each other and had not had a chance to concoct the story together.

Pilling was interviewed three times by police earlier this year after being arrested in February and denied all the offences and said he had no idea why the claims were being made.

Police asked Pilling why the boy who claimed to have been raped almost every week would make such allegations to which he replied: "I've not the foggiest. I don't know."

The jury at Preston Crown Court has been considering verdicts for nine hours but have agreed on only one of the allegations finding 50 year old Piling not guilty of one indecent assault.

He still faces 14 other charges -- nine of rape and five of indecent assault. The jury will continue its deliberations today, Thursday.