OAP, 86, cleared of child sex allegations (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)
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OAP, 86, cleared of child sex allegations
9:13am Monday 17th September 2012 in News
A PENSIONER has been cleared on a series of sex charges dating back decades. Percy Hermitage denied 15 charges when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court.
He claimed the allegations were a conspiracy against him and there had been no sexual contact with the three girls involved.
The 86-year-old denied four charges of sexual intercourse, two indecent assaults and one of attempted sexual intercourse with one girl, six indecent assaults on another girl and two indecent assaults on a third.
The court heard the offences were said to have taken place between 1966 and 1987 and involved girls aged between four and 11 at locations including Saffron Walden, Hatfield Heath, Harlow and Sawbridgeworth.
Hermitage, formerly from Beach Road, Clacton, but now living at a warden-controlled flat at Mead Court, Cannons Mead, Stansted Mountfitchet, told the court his behaviour towards the children had always been perfectly proper.
A jury cleared him of all the charges during a hearing on Friday.
Hermitage will be sentenced for six charges of possessing weapons without a firearms certificate and two charges of possessing ammunition, all of which he has admitted, on October 26.
