A FISHGUARD man has been acquitted of a series of historical child sex offences in a retrial at Swansea Crown Court.

Brian Buckle, 51, faced 12 charges of indecent assault, three of indecency with a child, and one of attempted rape – all dated between March 31, 1993 and April 1, 1996.

Each of the allegations involved the same complainant.

Buckle, then aged 45, had been convicted of these same offences in 2017, when Swansea Crown Court sentenced him to a combined 33 years in prison, to be served over a 15 year period.

A retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal last year.

Following a two-week trial at Swansea Crown Court, the 11-strong jury returned a not guilty verdict on each of the counts after just over four hours of deliberations.

The prosecution had alleged that Buckle sexually abused the complainant – who at that time was aged between eight and ten – and forensically linked her to the complainant through traces of his semen on her childhood diary.

The defendant denied all of the charges, and insisted he was being “set up”.

“I never sexually abused, or physically or mentally abused, [the complainant],” he told the jury.

His barrister argued that he had never seen the diary – which he dubbed “the invisible diary” – before the 2017 trial, and said that Buckle’s DNA must’ve been planted on it – potentially from a used condom.  

Forensic chemist Dr Candice Bridge analysed the semen in the diary, and gave evidence that elements of lubricant used in condoms were present.

The complainant was asked why she had not ever reported the allegations to the police.

The charges came to light in 2015 when the complainant’s dad told police in an unrelated police interview.

She said she had only had bad experiences with the police throughout her life.

“It’s because the defendant did not do these things,” countered the defence barrister.