A FORMER Droitwich teacher has been cleared of 30 sex offences allegedly committed with a young girl more than 30 years ago.

A jury of five women and seven men returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on 57-year-old Stephen Fretwell after an eight-day trial at Worcester Crown Court.

He was cleared on 13 charges of indecent assault and the jury returned other verdicts of not guilty during the trial on the direction of Judge Abbas Mithani.

Fretwell, now a teacher in Norfolk and living in Erpingham, Norwich, denied that he had seduced and groomed the girl, now in her 40s, when he was teaching in the Droitwich area in the 1980s.