A TEENAGER accused of releasing a handbrake on a crane which then went crashing into a pensioner's home, was cleared in just minutes.

The 17-year-old Bacup youth was found not guilty by a Burnley Crown Court jury of damaging property and being reckless as to whether life was endangered, after a three day trial.

The defendant, who a judge had earlier ordered should not be named, was discharged from the dock.

The jury had heard how the crane virtually demolished 75-year-old widow Doris Kay's Bacup home, after it rolled down a hill and smashed into it in February.

Mrs Kay (inset), who had been watching television, cheated death and serious injury and it took emergency services an hour and a half to free her.

The youth had told the court that he did not release the hand brake. He said he had been at home playing on his computer when he heard sirens. The youth said he and his father went to see what was happening and he saw the crane had hit the house and that a large crowd of people had gathered.