AN Ipswich pensioner is a free man today after a jury acquitted him of three child sex attacks and failed to reach a decision on seven others.

AN Ipswich pensioner is a free man today after a jury acquitted him of three child sex attacks and failed to reach a decision on seven others.

James Small, of Mildmay Road, Ipswich, was put on trial for a second time after the Court of Appeal had overturned his previous conviction for the alleged historic sex offences.

The 66-year-old had previously served two years in jail following his first trial in October 2006.

Small's two-week retrial was held at Norwich Crown Court and involved alleged attacks on three girls over a 19-year period.

The jury found him not guilty of two charges of indecent assault and an allegation of rape.

However, it could not come to a decision over seven further counts of indecent assault.

Small's retrial came after appeal court judges granted his appeal against conviction for 16 alleged offences against the three girls.

The OAP, who had always protested his innocence, was originally found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault and four further charges of rape.

The allegations were said to have taken place between 1969 and 1988.

However the Norwich Crown Court jury in that case could not agree unanimously that he was guilty and the judge took a majority verdict.

Although sentenced to jail, Small, who worked for Crane Ltd, for nearly 40 years, launched an appeal aimed at quashing his convictions. It took him two years to succeed.

In November last year he was freed from a 13-year sentence after three senior judges, Sir Christopher Holland Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Cranston at Royal Courts of Justice in London, overturned all 16 convictions.