Former football coach cleared of sexually assaulting boy

A former Crewe Alexandra youth coach has been cleared of sexually abusing a teenage boy.

Paul McCann was found not guilty of four counts of indecent assault on Thursday, a spokesman for Chester Crown Court said.

The jury took one hour and 40 minutes to reach their verdicts.

Not guilty verdicts for two other counts of indecent assault were returned earlier in the week following directions from the judge.

The 57-year-old had been accused of grooming and abusing the youngster in the late 1980s.

He was alleged to have carried out the abuse on a trip abroad, then at his home in Crewe and after games at a local squash club.

But Mr McCann, of Great Sutton, Cheshire, told the jury he became a “surrogate father” to the youngster, who had a difficult home life, “spoiling” him by paying for holidays and taking him on football tours.