21 July 2006
Court clears former council leader of indecency charges
Former Hull City Council leader, Colin Inglis, has been cleared of a series of child abuse charges.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court found Cllr Inglis not guilty on Monday of five allegations of indecent assault, dating back to the 1980s.
Cllr Inglis, 49, of Wellington Street West, was cleared of a sixth charge involving the same complainant on Friday. Originally, he faced 14 counts of indecent assault against a teenage boy at a Hull children’s home between April 1982 and August 1983, but he was found not guilty of eight charges earlier in the trial on the orders of the judge.
Cllr Inglis had worked at the Spring Cottage Children’s Home as a social worker during the 1980s, where the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stayed. The court was told that his relationship with the boy had also been investigated by the police in 1997, but no charges were brought.
Labour councillor Mr Inglis, who is also a former chairman of Humberside Police Authority, elected not to give evidence himself during the two-week trial, and has always denied the allegations.
