Herefordshire | Archive | 2001 | January | 17
From the archive, first published Wednesday 17th Jan 2001.
A HEREFORDSHIRE businessman has been cleared of sex attacks on a young girl after a six-day trial.
Ian Johnson said in evidence that she became obsessed with him and he felt embarrassed by her behaviour. He claimed the girl was an attention-seeker and that he had only ever tickled her.
A jury at Worcester Crown Court cleared Johnson, aged 35, of Woodend Farm, Bromyard Road, Cradley, of five counts of indecent assault.
The prosecution had alleged that the girl was first touched illegally when the defendant was working as a milkman in 1988.
Two women told the court that he had confessed to them that he had responded sexually to the girl.
But Johnson, a married man with two sons, denied any misconduct and told police it was only her word against his.
He denied ever admitting guilt to anyone and said the allegations of child abuse had shocked him.
Friends and business acquaintances said he had always been an honest man and that his affair with a herdsman's wife was no secret.
Johnson's sister Muriel Hughes said he was `totally distraught' after his arrest and had pored over incidents that the girl may have misinterpreted.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008