Friends and relatives of a school caretaker cheere

Friends and relatives of a school caretaker cheered and
clapped after a jury acquitted him today (Thurs) of having
unlawful sex with a 14-year-old pupil.

Giving evidence at Snaresbrook Crown Court handsome Lennie
Page, 23, had stressed that he did not know the girl’s age when
they had sexual intercourse on the floor of a small class-room
at the Plaistow comprehensive.

Page said that the teenager never told him her real age and
claimed to be older than fifth-formers who she pointed out to him.

It took the jury three hours and twenty minutes to clear
him of having unlawful sexual intercourse with an underage girl.

Page, of Godwin Road, Forest Gate, had denied the charge.

Minutes after the verdict was announced Page was still shaking
uncontrollably as friends and members of his family, including his
father, rushed to his side to congratulate him.

Opening the Crown’s case prosecutor Mr Alistair Keith had
described how he ‘attracted quite a lot of attention from young
ladies at the comprehensive school’ when he started his job as
a caretaker in July last year.

Counsel said that the 14-year-old would regularly pay visits
to Page after school hours and on Saturdays.

It was alleged that on November 28 last year he asked the girl
and her best pal who ‘wanted to go first’ with him for sex in a small
classroom.

But giving evidence Page said that both of the girls suggested
to him:
‘You can have us both.

‘
He told the jury that the alleged victim lied about her age and
said that ‘she’d had sex before.

‘
Cross-examining Page, Mr Keith had suggested that he made up the
excuse of ‘going to get condoms’ during intercourse when he suddenly
realised he was ‘having sex with somebody who was very young.

‘
Page denied the suggestion and said that he stopped only because
he was ‘frightened that somebody else would walk in,’ and he would get
into trouble.

The mother of the girl had reported the matter to police after
she discovered entries she made in a secret diary detailing her
daughter’s encounter with Page.

ends