Nelson teen accused of four counts of rape cleared (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Nelson teen accused of four counts of rape cleared

4:20pm Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News By Wendy Barlow, Court reporter

A TEENAGER has been cleared of beating up and repeatedly raping a girl when he lived in Nelson.

Mikael Jalal Hussain, now 18, was found not guilty of four counts of rape and three of assault causing actual bodily harm by a Burnley Crown Court jury at the end of a five-day trial.

The defendant, formerly of Nelson but who now lives in the Bradford area, was discharged from the dock by Judge Robert Altham after the verdicts were delivered.

He had denied all of the allegations against him and told the jury the girl’s claims were ‘rubbish’.

Prosecutors had alleged Hussain, a martial arts enthusiast, had hit the girl with a stick and punched her.

He was said to have thrown a purse at her and tied her to a mattress with cable ties and raped her.

He was also accused of holding a knife to her neck before cutting her leg.

The girl was said to have been ‘petrified’ by his alleged behaviour, which was said to have taken place several years ago.

But Hussain told the court on the fourth day of the hearing that the girl’s allegations, alleged to have revolved around an incident at a house in Nelson, were not true.

Questioned by his barrister Andrew Nuttall, Hussain insisted that everything he had told police when he was first interviewed about the alleged attack was still true.

He said he had not been violent towards her and had not forced her to have sex.