http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... g-boy.htmlA former Coronation Street star walked free from court yesterday after a jury acquitted him of abusing a teenage boy.
Andrew Lancel, 42, had been accused of using his status to groom the child for sex acts. Judge Clement Goldstone QC told Lancel’s counsel, Andrew Menary QC, that the verdicts did not mean sexual encounters never took place.
He said: ‘The defendant was acquitted on the evidence, and rightly so, but it is important that the complainant, who is clearly scarred by an experience, should understand that the jury verdict does not necessarily involve rejection of his account of a sexual encounter or encounters with the defendant.
‘It is a statement that the prosecution have failed to make the jury sure that abuse of the type alleged occurred during the period covered by the indictment and in particular before the complainant’s 16th birthday, now more than 18 years ago.’
On one occasion, father-of-one Lancel, who starred in more than 100 episodes of the ITV soap opera as Frank Foster, was said to have pulled down the boy’s pants and touched him. On another, he was said to have encouraged the boy, who was 14 or 15 at the time, to carry out sex acts on him.
His accuser, now a 34-year-old ballet dancer, said he had been left emotionally distraught.
Lancel was charged under his real name of Andrew Watkinson with six counts of indecent assault on the youngster in 1994 when the teenager was attending a theatre group.
But yesterday the jury at Liverpool Crown Court took just 29 minutes to clear him.
Lancel looked to the ceiling in relief and his wife of seven years, Louise, burst into tears when the verdict was delivered. Afterwards, they left the court hand in hand. Smiling, Lancel posed for photographs but declined to comment on the case.
His solicitor, Stuart Nolan, said: ‘Andrew would like to thank his family and friends and all parties for their support and prayers.’
The jury heard Lancel first approached the boy after watching him rehearse for a musical in Southport, Merseyside. The actor, who also played DI Neil Manson in The Bill, denied any sexual contact took place.
Last week the judge told the jury to dismiss two of the six charges as his accuser could not be certain he was 14 at the time of the incidents. Yesterday’s not-guilty verdicts on the remaining four counts related to when the accuser was 15.
What the fuck is this judge on?
A man has been tried for weeks before a jury of his peers and they have found him not guilty of any crime after just 29 minutes of deliberation. He is absolutely innocent in the eyes of the law and no man has a right to cast doubt on his innocence. Mr Lancel should sue the arse off the judge - his comments were disgraceful.
