A FORMER comedy duo have been cleared of historic child sex abuse after their trial collapsed at Bolton Crown Court.

Last week a jury spent fours days hearing allegations that Norman Vernon and Geoffrey Axford, who used to perform in North West pubs and clubs as the Vernon Brothers, had repeatedly indecently assaulted a teenage boy in the early 1980s.

Vernon, aged 80 and Axford, now 76, were joined in the dock by 73-year-old Kenneth Platt. Each defendant faced four counts of indecently assaulting the boy when he was aged 14 or 15.

Mr Platt admitted engaging in sexual activity with the boy, but claimed it was consensual and occurred after the teenager turned 16, while Mr Vernon and Mr Axford denied ever meeting the complainant.

Yesterday at the conclusion of the case against the men, David Toal, prosecuting, told Judge Timothy Stead that it could not be established with certainty that the alleged offences had occurred when the boy was below 16.

The jury of eight men and four women, on the direction of Judge Stead, found Mr Vernon, of Kirkwall Drive, The Haulgh, Mr Axford, of Fordham Grove, Bolton and Mr Platt, of Wigan Road, Bolton not guilty on all counts.

During the trial the court heard how the allegations against the men were made after the boy, who who had been a resident at the Washacre Children's Home in Westhoughton, complained to police in 2013.

He told how he had been used as a rent boy by several men in Bolton when he was a teenager, including several abusers who are now dead.

Giving evidence, he said that he began being abused by men when he was allowed to visit his mother's house in Bolton at weekends and holidays.

His lifestyle there was difficult and unstable and the jury were told that he would spend time walking the streets of Bolton, begging for money and became a target for sexual predators going "chicken hunting" - looking for young boys.

He was said to have been first abused by a man called Malcolm Lord, who worked at an elderly person's care home near his mother's home and would take him into the office at night.

H also came into contact with Mr Platt, whom he alleged was one of four men who engaged in sexual activity with him at a Fernstead flat.

Mr Platt admitted he did have sex with the complainant after meeting him at the flats, but denied he was one of the men who allegedly repeatedly abused the boy.

He said his encounters with the teenager lasted less than five weeks while he was temporarily living at the flats and at the time the boy was over 16.

The complainant, now in his 40s, also alleged he was picked up in Mr Axford's car on several occasions and abused by both Mr Vernon and Mr Axford at his house in Darcy Lever.

But Andrew Nuttall, defending Mr Axford, revealed that his client has been impotent since the 1980s and from 1982 to 1984, the period the assaults are said to have occurred, he was out of the country.