A visitor assistant at the Manx Museum has been cleared of indecently assaulting a four-year-old girl in the Exploratorium gallery.

Paul Welden, 43, of Snaefell Crescent, Onchan, was found not guilty following a three-day trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery.

The jury of five men and two woman took just 30 minutes to reach their unanimous verdict.

Deemster Kainth told him: 'Your day has got a million times better. That brings the nightmare as far as you are concerned to an end.

'Your name, your good character remain intact.’

Mr Walden, who described securing his full-time job at Manx National Heritage as 'the career equivalent of winning the Lottery’, denied lifting up the girl’s skirt and touching her in the museum’s Exploratorium in Saturday June 24 last year.

He told the jury he had simply been trying to help the girl by straightening up her fancy dress that had got twisted - and maintained that the girl must have been confused and she and her mother must have been lying.

The case has highlighted concerns about the lack of safeguarding training for MNH staff and the fact that not all areas of the museum are covered by CCTV.

The court heard that the mother had previously been in dispute with MNH over her tenancy.

* Read our full report in the Manx Independent, in the shops tomorrow.