A BURY teenager was yesterday (January 8) cleared by a jury of raping a 14-year-old girl he met through the Internet.

The 17-year-old from Brandlesholme, who denied the charge, was found not guilty after a four-day trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

The boy was arrested after the girl claimed he raped her on the floor of the bathroom in her parents' luxury home near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

He had spent the weekend there in August 1996, while her parents were on holiday. He met the girl after she had made contact with his brother through the Internet.

The Bury teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court he had not had sex with the girl on the day in question, but had done - with her consent - on an earlier occasion.

They had known each other for some time, but the girl told the court that their relationship was cooling.

Prosecuting, Mr Andrew Kershaw said that the boy had slept on the sofa after he, the girl, her 25-year-old sister and a friend had stayed up until the early hours watching a film.

The next morning, Mr Kershaw said, the girl had gone to put on a bikini in the bathroom before having a swim in a pool at the house. It was then, the girl claimed, that the Bury boy had forced her to the floor and raped her.

The girl's sister told the court that the boy had laughed at her when she rang him to confront him over the allegations.

But the jury heard from the boy that he and the alleged victim had been sexually intimate on a previous occasion with the girl's consent.

The jury of seven men and five women delivered their not guilty verdict after 90 minutes at the end of the four-day trial.

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