A FITNESS consultant was cleared yesterday of indecently assaulting a teenage girl in a council sauna.

Michael Hirst, 32, heaved a sigh of relief and mouthed his thanks to the jury of eight women and four men.

The 14-year-old girl told police that he invited her into the sauna at closing time at the centre in Shildon, County Durham, to help with problems she was having at home.

She claimed that he offered her a seat and then he knelt down and kissed her. She told him that she was shocked, she said, but then she alleged that he put his hand inside her top and fondled her left breast.

She told Teesside Crown Court: "I told him he was stupid and that I was going."

Rod Hunt, defending, challenged her about a note which she sent to a male teacher at her school which said he was more fanciable than Leonardo De Caprio.

The teacher reported it immediately to the principal, but Mr Hunt said that it could have threatened the man's job.

The girl replied that it was copied from a magazine as a Valentine's Day joke.

Mr Hirst denied the girl's allegations. He said that she told him earlier she was leaving home because of her violent stepfather. Mr Hirst said he thought she might appreciate an "older figure" listening to her problems.

Mr Hirst of Morrison Close, Newton Aycliffe, was found not guilty of indecently assaulting her on March 25.