A pensioner accused of sexually abusing two young girls in a Buckhurst Hill squat 40 years ago has been cleared of all charges.

John Taplin, 71, pleaded not guilty to 13 offences of indecent assault involving children aged eight or nine.

Whetstone man Mr Taplin claimed the two complainants, now aged 49 and 50 and originally from Loughton and Epping, had fabricated their allegations.

After a week-long trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, today (July 14) the nine women and three men jurors took four hours to return unanimous not guilty verdicts on ten charges.

Nine related to one alleged victim, and the tenth to the second.

Judge Christopher Morgan had directed the jury to enter not guilty verdicts on three charges.

He discharged Mr Taplin, a former electrician's mate and landscape gardener, who had previously lived in the Crooked Mile, Waltham Abbey.

The prosecution had alleged that both girls were taken at different times to the squat in a large Edwardian house in Palmerston Road, Buckhurst Hill, in the mid-70s.

One complainant told the trial she was stripped naked and sexually assaulted on a mattress on the floor.

She claimed she was threatened that the “guys downstairs” would want to do the same things to her if she did not keep quiet.

The other girl claimed that Mr Taplin played a pornographic film on the television in which “angels” dressed in white had sex with multiple people, and that he pushed his erect penis up against her back as he lay behind her on the mattress.

Mr Taplin was also alleged to have touched their breasts, vaginas and buttocks and penetrated a vagina with his fingers through knickers.

He denied all sexual touching or making any threats.

He described one of the girls as “flirty, fanciful” and said: “I have no idea why she said this.”