A FORMER Scoutmaster smiled as he was cleared of nine child sex abuse charges yesterday.

Peter Hamilton-Harvey, of Dean Park Road in Bournemouth, faced a week-long trial after being accused of historic sexual offences against a child.

The 56-year-old denied all of the allegations, which had included indecent assault and rape.

Jurors at Bournemouth Crown Court unanimously cleared him of any wrongdoing after being sent out to consider their verdict on Friday afternoon.

Before jurors were called back into the court, Mr Hamilton-Harvey had smiled and laughed with a friend sitting in the public gallery.

He stood in the dock with his hands clasped behind his back as the foreman declared he had been found not guilty on each of the counts, before smiling to himself and then quickly leaving the court afterwards.

A judge had already dismissed four of the original 13 allegations against him following the defence's claim that some of the evidence was inconsistent.

Jurors were told during the trial that the defendant had admitted similar offences in 1993.

But Robert Grey, defending, had urged them to try the case "clinically and dispassionately", adding: "In this case the defendant has said to you, and the police when he was interviewed, 'I didn't do this. There were things that I did, I pleaded guilty to them and these are different because I'm not guilty of these charges'."

All of the charges facing Mr Hamilton-Harvey were alleged to have taken place during the eighties.

Mr Grey also reminded the jury about evidence heard during the trial in relation to the complainant's medical history.

Doctors' reports indicated that the man, who cannot be named, suffered mental health problems, was admitted to hospital with psychosis, and had jumped out of a window.

The victim had also claimed he had been sexually abused by a family friend as a teenager as well as his grandfather as a young child, the jury were told.