A retired teacher from Dunmow was today cleared of claims that he carried out two sex attacks on a young boy over 40 years ago.

A jury of seven women and five men at Chelmsford Crown Court took just an hour to find Paul Stainsby, 66, not guilty of carrying out the attacks which were alleged to have happened in a tent.

Mr Stainsby, of Millers Croft, Dunmow, sat emotionless in the dock as the verdicts were announced and Judge Emma Peters discharged him.

The judge commented to the jurors: “Courts hear more and more cases of alleged historical sex abuse.”

Mr Stainsby, who denied indecent assault and indecency with a child, both between 9 October, 1971 and 8 October, 1973, and was found not guilty of both, had been a teacher at the Tabor High School, near Braintree, although the boy had not been a pupil there.

Having obtained qualifications in aviation, he had recently been living in Tanzania and advising on safety and quality in Africa, before being arrested in 2015.

However, Mr Stainsby said in evidence that he had never been camping with the boy, who the court was told had “idolised” him, nor gone into a tent with him at any time.

The alleged victim had claimed that Mr Stainsby went into a tent occupied by him and his older brother and had claimed to be “keeping him warm,” before committing the offences.