A NORTH-EAST family man who has spent six months in prison after being found guilty of exposing himself to a young girl has been freed.

Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal quashed Geoffrey Arthur Hall’s conviction and refused to order a retrial, stating that it would undesirable.

Mr Hall, 49, of Bloomfield Road, Darlington, was jailed for 18 months at Sheffield Crown Court in August last year after he was convicted of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

But that conviction was overturned yesterday, and Mr Hall, a father-of-two, was released.

Lord Justice Pill said the conviction related to a 2009 allegation that Mr Hall had exposed himself to a 12-year-old schoolgirl as she was walking past his former home in Ashfurlong Road, in the Dore area of Sheffield.

Mr Hall, who always maintained his innocence, told police he had no idea why the girl had made the claim.

His barrister, Mark Barlow, told judges at yesterday’s hearing that his conviction was unsafe because the judge had misdirected the jury.

Mr Barlow said the judge did not emphasise to the jurors the importance of Mr Hall’s clean record, and may have influenced them by referring to the alleged victim as a very bright girl.

The court also heard the judge had made an unclear reference to the scales of justice when advising the jury.

After hearing the submissions, Lord Justice Pill, sitting with Mr Justice Owen and Judge Andrew Patience, quashed the conviction and ordered that Mr Hall be released from prison.

He told the court: “The circumstances did not require or permit the complexity and obscurity of the direction which, in our judgement, was indicated.

“There is a real risk that the jury did not approach the good character evidence as they should have done had they received an inappropriate direction. For that reason the conviction is unsafe.”

Lord Justice Pill ordered that more than £2,500 that Mr Hall had been ordered to pay towards the costs of his prosecution should be repaid to him.

Mr Hall, who sat in the dock throughout the appeal, showed little emotion as the judge gave the court’s decision, but a number of his family and friends, who sat at the back of the court, wept with joy.