A POPULAR village postmaster has been cleared of sex assaults on a child and a pregnant woman after a jury took just eight minutes to find him not guilty.

Father-of-two and grandfather Alan Holden, 60, broke down and sobbed as he won the battle to clear his name after a four day trial at Burnley Crown Court.

He was discharged from the dock by Judge Andrew Woolman, thanked the jury and left the court to be greeted by equally tearful family and friends.

Holden, who has run the post office in Dill Hall Lane, Church, for 18 years, was found not guilty of four charges of indecent assault, said to have occurred bertween January 1996 and December 1999 and one count of sexual assault, alleged to have been committed in October 2006.

He had denied the allegations and told the jury both alleged victims were lying.

Holden, who lives with his wife Gail at Dill Hall Lane, has no criminal convictions.

After the verdicts, Holden's daughter Lindsey Baxter spoke of the family's joy at her father's acquittal.

She said :"We are very pleased and relieved. Its been a very hard 18 months for us."

Mrs Baxter said the the post office customers had been very supportive of her father and added the family had been inundated with good wishes.

She said: "We have had hundreds of of cards, letters and texts in support of us. Nobody ever doubted him."

The court had heard prosecution claims Holden was a "sexual predator, who was said to have groped a pregnant custopmer when they were alone in the shop.

He was also alleged to have groomed a 12-year-old schoolgirl for his sexual gratification and the jury had heard claims he had massaged her breasts, given her sweets and money, talked about naturism and said he might take her to Thailand.

Holden told the court the 12 year old was "psychologically distrubed," and he had not touched her inappropriately at any time. He said the pregnant woman had "built a fabric of lies around the situation."

The jury was told after the 12 year old told her parents of her claim in 1999, a police investigation was held but no charges were brought before the court.

The court heard after the pregnant woman was alleged to have been fondled by the defendant she still carried on with her transaction before leaving the store.

She claimed she was upset and in tears but Holden told the police she had seemed perfectly happy and in no distress.

He told officers: "If she felt like that she deserved an Oscar. She gave no indication anything was wrong."