A FORMER Warwickshire Police sergeant accused of sexually abusing a number of teenagers has been cleared of three alleged offences.
But after seven days deliberating the jury at Warwick Crown Court has so far been unable to reach verdicts on 23 further charges faced by Timothy Lively in relation to seven boys and three girls.
The 60-year-old, of Old School Mead, Bidford-on-Avon, had denied a total of 26 charges dating from the mid-1970s to the summer of 1986 when some of the allegations were first made.
The alleged offences were said to have taken place in Stratford at a time when Mr Lively, now a successful businessman, was a Warwickshire Police officer or, before then, a cadet.
Mr Lively was accused of indecently assaulting eight boys, some of them at a children’s home where he was a volunteer, two while on camping trips and one at Stratford police station.
He is also said to have had sex with two of the boys, one of them at a boy’s club he was involved with running at the time.
The charges also include allegedly indecently assaulting three girls and raping one of them.
The jury has heard a complaint was first made in 1986 by a man who alleges he was abused in the late 1970s and early 80s.
Although no charges resulted from that man’s original complaint, there was an internal tribunal which prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC said led to Mr Lively being dismissed from the force in 1988.
As the trial entered its 13th week, the jury found Mr Lively not guilty by unanimous verdicts of two charges of indecently assaulting a boy under the age of 16 in 1979.
They also found him not guilty of allegedly indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy on a camping trip in the early 1980s.
But he still faces two charges of indecently assaulting that boy at Stratford police station on later occasions and 23 further charges in relation to six other boys and three girls.
In response to questions by the court clerk, the jury foreman indicated they had not reached unanimous verdicts on any of those remaining 23 charges.
Judge Anthony Potter told them: “I’m going to ask you to go back to your room and continue to strive to reach, if you can, verdicts on each of the remaining counts on which you all agree.
“If you cannot, I may now accept verdicts in respect of the remaining 23 counts on which you do not all agree.”
“But I can only accept a verdict on which at least ten of you agree.”
