A GYMNASTICS coach was found not guilty yesterday of raping a 14-year-old girl acrobat in the early 1990s.

Jack Foster, 62, said he now wanted to get back to coaching youngsters again.

Mr Foster also said he would campaign for anonymity until conviction for people accused of sex charges, like himself and TV presenter John Leslie.

A jury at Teesside Crown Court took five hours to acquit Mr Foster, who runs a gym club at Thornaby Pavilion with his wife, Joyce.

He had been suspended from his job as caretaker at a Redcar school and was forced to move out of his staff bungalow. He was also banned from coaching by the British Amateur Gymnastics Association pending the outcome of the case.

But he and his wife had sympathy for his accuser, now aged 22, who cannot be named for legal reasons. He said: "I don't hold any animosity against her, she is poorly and she needs help. How she has turned out like this from the young girl I coached I don't know."

The woman had accused Mr Foster of raping her three times in a store cupboard at the centre.

Mr Foster, of Trent Road, Redcar, said that he hoped to be back coaching and at work next month. He praised the support of his wife and family. "They have kept me going," he said. The verdict was greeted by screams of joy by his family.

Mr Foster was found not guilty of three charges of rape and two of indecent assault.