A MARRIED man has been cleared of raping a teenager.
John Maughan denied raping a 17-year-old girl in an alley off Southfield Road, in East Oxford, in August last year.
He was cleared of the charge at Oxford Crown Court last week in a retrial after the jury in the initial trial in February failed to reach a verdict. Jurors heard the 19-year-old defendant, of Walnut Tree, in Milton Keynes, met the girl on the Tagged.com website.
Maughan, a traveller, was married at the time and used the false name Michael Ward to register with the site.
The jury heard the defendant and the girl met on a “first date” in Milton Keynes on August 10 before agreeing to meet in Oxford on August 17.
Maughan admitted having sex with the 17-year-old in an alleyway off Southfield Road at about 8pm, but maintained during the trial that it was consensual.
Following the not-guilty verdict he was formally discharged.
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