A TEENAGE boy was yesterday cleared of rape.

The 16-year-old boy from the Wrexham area had been charged with raping a schoolgirl near a pond.

He pleaded not guilty and told a Mold Crown Court jury they had sex with the 15-year-old girl’s consent.

The teenager said the girl kissed and cuddled him and followed him when he walked off to urinate.

They walked along a path, kissed and fondled each other under their clothes and he had asked her if she wanted to go further. She said “yes”, the court heard.

The youth, who cannot be publicly identified, denied he had been pulling at her leggings as she tried to keep them up. She had been saying “no” and asking him to stop.

After a retirement of more than an hour, the jury of seven men and five women returned with a unanimous ‘not guilty’ verdict.

The prosecution had alleged the youth raped the girl, a virgin, as she was pleading with him to stop.

Prosecutor Karl Scholz said he had sex with her, telling her “come on, it will be fine.”

Maria Massellis, defending, told the trial, before Judge Philip Hughes, that there was evidence, including from prosecution witnesses, that the girl had been kissing and cuddling her client before she followed him away from the main group, who had been to a party.