A HIGHFLYING head teacher is to face a retrial in the New Year on historic child sex charges.

Anne Lakey, chief executive of the County Durham Federation of Schools, appeared before Durham Crown Court this morning to learn whether she will face a second trial over alleged offences against a teenage boy in the late 1980s.

Last week, a jury at the same court failed to reach a verdict following a seven-day trial, which heard allegations that Ms Lakey conducted a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy, when she was in her late 20s.

The 54-year-old, of Oxhill Villas, Stanley, denied four charges of indecent assault and two of encouraging a child to commit an act of gross indecency.

The court this morning ordered a retrial scheduled for January 19 next year.