A 38-YEAR-OLD man has been cleared of raping a schoolgirl, after a two-week trial at Burnley Crown Court.

Nisar Ahmed, of Daneshouse Road, Burnley, who had denied the allegation, was found not guilty by the jury.

The court had heard claims the defendant had raped the complainant in the back of a car and she had later broken down and confided in her mother.

Ahmed said he had not had sex with the girl although she had been "begging for it," but he later was to contend he and the schoolgirl had had sex some days earlier.