A FORMER Bradford vicar has been cleared of historic allegations that he sexually abused a young teenage parishioner.

Graham Doyle, 69, broke down in tears in the dock as a jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts to two counts of indecent assault.

The defendant had strenuously denied the allegations, which had been said to have taken place during his time as vicar at St Oswald’s Church in Little Horton between 1986 and 1991.

Prosecutor Andrew Semple had told Bradford Crown Court that while helping to support the boy through a family emergency, Doyle had assaulted him as they sat on the sofa of the vicarage where the defendant lived.

He had been accused of undoing the boy’s trousers and performing sexual acts on him.

The complainant had alleged that Doyle’s conduct had stopped when he went to stay with family in a different area of the country, but added that when he later returned to Bradford, the defendant showed him a house and said: “I’ve bought that for you”, something Mr Semple alleged was an attempt to “buy his silence.”

Doyle was initially spoken to by police and social services at his home in Killyon Hill, Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland, when the allegations against him came to light in 2014.

When asked how he had felt about being accused of the alleged abuse, Doyle told the jury: “I was devastated. I just didn’t know what to do.”

In a statement given to Irish police, he said of his conduct with the boy: “Absolutely nothing improper or untoward happened. I did not touch him, ever.”

Doyle told the jury he had known the boy and his family through his work with the church, but said he had “no recollection” of sitting on the sofa of the vicarage with him.”

When accused by Mr Semple of “touching up” the boy and later feeling “disgusted” with himself, Doyle had said: “I didn’t touch him. I’m not disgusted with myself, I’m very proud of who I am.”

When asked whether he had ever physically comforted the complainant, the defendant added: “I don’t generally put my arm on anyone. I never have.”

David Toal, defending, had told the jury that Doyle was an Australian national who had moved to the UK permanently in 1985, having previously studied at Oxford.

He worked in a parish in Shepherd’s Bush in London before taking the role at St Oswald’s in 1986.

The court heard that he then worked in the former Yugoslavia before moving to Ireland in 2000.

Doyle accepted that he had bought a house in Bradford before leaving his role at St Oswald’s but described any suggestion he had used it to maintain a bond with the boy as “preposterous.”

He told the jury he had bought and subsequently leased the property to maintain a base in the UK to assist with visa purposes.

Asked whether he could think of any reason why the complainant had made allegations against him, Doyle had said: “I have no idea.”