A 56-year-old man has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a young girl in his caravan.

The 12-year-old girl had claimed that William Woodall molested her when she stayed the night at the caravan on the Isle of Sheppey.

She said she had been on holiday with her family at a caravan in Eastchurch in July last year when she went out for the evening with friends to the Dickens pub.

It was arranged that she would stay the night at Mr Woodall’s caravan. When she went to sleep, she said, Mr Woodall was in an armchair at the end of the bed.

"When I woke up he was touching me," she told Maidstone Crown Court. She said Mr Woodall touched her under her knickers. "It made me feel scared," she said. "I pushed his hand away.

"He took his hand out and stood up. My eyes were half open. He was wearing just a pair of boxers. He didn’t know I was awake. He went back to bed."

Woodall, of Sheppey Beach Villas, Manor Way, Leysdown, denied sexual assault.

The father-of-three said he was shocked to be accused of the offence. He said the girl and his daughter went to sleep. He denied touching the girl indecently. Mr Woodall said when he woke up the girl had gone.

The jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict.