Ex Coronation Street actor Andrew Lancel is CLEARED of indecently assaulting boy, 15, but judge says the verdict does not mean that the complainant is lying

Lancel, who played Frank Foster, cleared of four counts of indecent assault



Youngster claimed assault took place when he was a teenager in 1994



Judge said the claimant was 'clearly scarred' by his experience



He said verdict 'did not necessarily involve rejection of his account of a sexual encounter or encounters with the defendant.'

Actor said after verdict he wants to 'spend time with his family'



A 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.

Andrew Lancel , who played Frank Foster in Coronation Street, eaves court with his wife Louise after being found not guilty of all charges at Liverpool Crown Court

The couple posed for photographs outside Liverpool Crown Court after the not-guilty verdict was delivered

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.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC, sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, said the jury's verdict did not 'necessarily involve rejection' of the claimant's 'account of a sexual encounter'

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.’

Andrew Lancel played Frank Foster in the soap from 2010 to 2012

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.