A Dover father and son walked free from the Appeal Court today after their convictions for sexually assaulting a child were quashed.

Pensioner Majid Saleh, 74, and Hussain Hamid, 24, broke down in tears after hearing Britain’s top judge ruled their convictions unsafe.

Lord Thomas, the Lord Chief Justice, and two appeal court judges, Mr Justices Sweeney and Nicol, were sitting at Canterbury Crown Court for the first time in its history.

The historic ruling on Mr Saleh and Mr Hamid, of Maison Dieu Place, Dover was also filmed by TV.

Afterwards, the family spokeswoman, Mrs Maria Mamjan said: “We had lost all belief in the judicial system in this country.

“Now it has been restored. We have suffered so much since the jury’s verdicts two years ago, being verbally abused and being shunned, even by family members.

“But we knew that Majid and Hussain were innocent and we refused to move away from the area despite the awful things that were said and done to us.”

Both men had always denied the allegations involving two children – which the family claim were false and motivated by “other considerations”.

After a trial a jury convicted the pair of just two of the 22 charges and each given two-year jail sentences.

“It has been the hardest two years for the family but we were determined to fight this case – even after we were told that we couldn’t appeal" - Maria Mamjan

They had been accused of sexual touching and inciting a child to commit a sex act – something both had denied from the start.

But now the High Court judges have ruled that the convictions were unsafe because the jury was misdirected on a point of law.

Mr Saleh – who plans to study law despite his advanced years and his son – whose ‘A’ level studies were stopped after the initial verdicts – wept after being told through an interpreter the verdicts were quashed.

Mrs Mamjan praised Hussain’s brother Aradil, who led the campaign to overturn the verdicts, going from door-to-door getting evidence and obtaining all the court papers.

“It has been the hardest two years for the family but we were determined to fight this case – even after we were told that we couldn’t appeal.

“Aradil worked tirelessly getting all the documents and it is ironic that the three appeal court judges should be at the same court where this injustice was done,” she added.