A FORMER pizza delivery man has been cleared of the attempted abduction of a 14-year-old girl.

A tearful Christopher Howe was told by Judge George Moorhouse at Teesside Crown Court that he was free to go after the jury returned its unanimous not guilty verdict.

Mr Howe, 35, of Oaklea Terrace, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, who was also cleared of an alternative charge of common assault, had told the jury that he was not even at the scene of the alleged abduction in the town on December 14 last year and was at home watching cartoons with his partner and children.

The prosecution had claimed that he followed the complainant as she walked home from school and at the junction of Cleveland Avenue and Brewer Street knocked her to the ground, telling her: "You're coming with me you little slut."

It also claimed in a separate incident, on January 3, that Mr Howe had loitered round the teenager's home, but this too was disputed by the father-of-two along with another witness who gave evidence in his defence.

Mr Howe told the jury that the allegations against him left him devastated and had "ruined his life".

The alleged victim and her mother had given evidence, but the jury failed to believe the accounts they gave.

Mr Howe's barrister Paul Cleasby also said there were no witnesses, despite the alleged abudution being next to a busy main road and at a time when hundreds of schoolchildren would have been heading home.