A FORMER school caretaker has been cleared of sending letters to a woman in Newton Abbot when banned from doing so.

Convicted child rapist Dean Rossington was made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) when he was jailed for 18 years at Plymouth Crown for five rapes and one sexual assault against a girl.

One of the prohibitions in the SHPO was an order not to contact various witnesses in the case.

He was alleged to have broken it by sending three letters in May and June 2020.

Rossington, aged 65, who is now a patient at Langdon Hospital, Dawlish, was found not guilty by Recorder Mr Malcolm Galloway after the prosecution offered no evidence.

They had been invited by the defence to review whether the prosecution was in the public interest in the light of the long sentence which Rossington is serving and the fact he is being treated at a psychiatric hospital.

Rossington, formerly of Plymouth, was cleared of three counts of breaching a SHPO at Exeter Crown Court.