A PREACHER collapsed in tears of joy last night when he was cleared after his third trial for allegedly raping a teenager.

Born-again Christian Robin Brown, 52, hugged his weeping brother and sister-in-law, who attended every day of his latest trial at Teesside Crown Court.

The court heard allegations that he groomed the 17-year-old by telling her his fantasies.

His tearful sister-in-law said after the jury's verdicts, reached after more than four-and-a- half hours: "This case has torn our family apart for the last three years. Please tell everybody that he is innocent."

Mr Brown, a former soldier of Fencehouses, Houghton-le-Spring, was found not guilty of three rapes and three specimen indecent assaults.

The jury at his first trial failed to reach verdicts, but he was convicted of the same charges in June last year at Newcastle Crown Court and jailed for eight years.

He served 13 months before the Court of Appeal overturned the verdicts in July, saying that the convictions were unsafe because of defects in the trial judge's summing-up. A re-trial was ordered.

The victim, now aged 24, gave evidence that Mr Brown told her she needed to stay close to him to get close to God and to tell him any sexual thoughts she had.

The court was told that, in police interviews, Mr Brown insisted that the allegations were a fabrication.