A TEENAGER has been cleared of two charges relating to alleged sexual assaults on young girls.

Michael Wressell was accused of two offences of indecent assault against the girls, said to have been carried out in 1996, when they were both aged about eight.

Mr Wressell, 18, of Front Street, Croxdale, near Durham, who was 14 at the time of the alleged incidents, denied both charges.

He was cleared by unanimous jury verdicts of both charges, after a three-day trial at Newcastle Crown Court.

Speaking after the case, Mr Wressell, an unemployed travel consultant, said, that having always denied the allegations, he was relieved to have been cleared of the charges.

He said he was now looking forward to getting on with his life