A FORMER Bolton schoolteacher has been cleared of indecently assaulting two girls at a primary school.

Neville Moss was accused of the offences from his time working at Oxford Grove Primary School, Halliwell, around 30 years ago.

After deliberating for less than two hours, the jury at Bolton Crown Court found Mr Moss not guilty of all three charges.

Mr Moss, now 69, was accused of putting his hand up one girl’s skirt as he marked her maths book.

Another girl, who the court heard did not know the first girl and had never met her, also complained that Moss had indecently assaulted her, by ticking and stroking her leg as she sat on his knee.

Mr Moss, now of Smithy Knoll Road, Calver, Derbyshire denied all three charges against him. Following a three-day trial at Bolton Crown Court, Judge Graeme Smith asked the jury to consider their verdicts and return a unanimous decision.

Friends and family of Mr Moss hugged in the public gallery after the verdict was read out. Addressing the public gallery, Judge Smith said: “I am very grateful for the quiet and dignified manner of everybody supporting this case. The defendant, of course, may leave the dock.”

In 2000 Mr Moss was acquitted on 13 charges of indecent assault and later resigned from his then teaching post.