A 25-YEAR-OLD Dursley man accused of raping a five-year-old boy and committing other sex offences against him has been cleared by a jury of all charges.

Thomas Griffiths, of Phillimore Road, Dursley, was found not guilty at Gloucester Crown Court by the jury of nine men and three women of all four counts against him.

The jury took almost exactly an hour to reach their verdicts at the conclusion of a four day trial.

After the verdicts, Mr Griffiths' defence barrister asked the judge if her client could leave the dock and, after he did so, tears of emotion could be heard outside the court room.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC then thanked the jury before discharging them.

During the trial, the court heard how Mr Griffiths allegedly raped the boy and sexually assaulted him twice, as well as asking him to touch him intimately.

He denied all the charges.

The jury heard that the boy had made the complaint against Mr Griffiths on August 28 - the youngster having claimed he had been assaulted twice by Mr Griffiths.

The boy also alleged that Griffiths had asked him to touch him intimately and that the defendant had raped him. It was on August 30 last year that Mr Griffiths was arrested, the court heard.

In evidence, Mr Griffiths said he had nothing to do with the boy sexually at all.

Prosecutor Lynne Matthews had put it to him that he had touched the child sexually.

"That's incorrect," said Mr Griffiths.

"You invited him to touch you," continued the barrister.

"That's incorrect," repeated the 25-year-old.

His mother, Susan Griffiths, was asked to describe her son's personality by defence barrister Virginia Cornwall.

"He's quite quiet," she said, adding that he tended to keep "himself to himself".

"He's caring and sensitive," she added.

On the second day of the trial, Dr David Oliffe, a community paedeatrician, who examined the boy, said his findings were "supportive but not diagnostic" of the complaint made.

The trial heard that when Mr Griffiths was arrested, he vehemently denied the allegations.

He dismissed some of what the boy said as "silly" and insisted it should be taken with a "pinch of salt".

Mr Griffiths had denied two counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13 between July 6 and August 28, 2007.

He also denied a charge of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity in a non-penetrative nature between the same dates.

He also pleaded not guilty to a fourth charge that he raped a child under 13 between July 6 and August 28, 2007.