by Keith Hunt

A teacher has been cleared of having under-age sex with a teenager after the prosecution dropped the case against him.

Ryan Weaver, who taught at a school in Gravesend, was alleged to have had intercourse with the girl when she was aged 15.

But the 32-year-old PE teacher, of Harriet Drive, Rochester, denied sexual activity with a child, claiming he did not make love to the girl until after she was 16.

Mr Weaver went on trial earlier this month and the girl wept as she gave evidence. The jury was discharged after new material came to light.

A retrial was to be sought but on Tuesday prosecutor Catherine Donnelly told Maidstone Crown Court: “The Crown Prosecution Service has reviewed the file and taken the view it is not in the public interest to proceed to a retrial.”

Judge Michael Carroll entered a not guilty verdict and agreed to a costs order for Mr Weaver’s privately funded defence.

Neena Crinnion, defending, said the costs totalled £30,000.

Judge Carroll told Miss Crinnion: “I will grant a costs order out of central funds but it should be taxed.”

The lawyer spoke of the “sorry history of this case from start to finish”.

Miss Donnelly said during the trial that Mr Weaver accepted the girl as a friend on Facebook. They swapped telephone numbers and contacted each other.

The girl claimed they started a sexual relationship a week before her 16th birthday. She said she had been a virgin.

“She thought he was using her simply for sex,” said the prosecutor. “In due course, the relationship finished.”

When arrested, Weaver admitted having a sexual relationship with the girl, but claimed it did not start until she was 16.

The teenager said in evidence that texts between her and Mr Weaver became very graphic and he asked her to send him “dirty pictures”.

She told the jury shielded from the dock behind curtains in the witness box: “I am here to do the right thing. I don’t want to be here.”