4:07pm Monday 18th May 2009
The headteacher of a Pembrokeshire junior school heard today he would be cleared of eight of the 19 allegations of sexual assault made against him.
Judge Michael Burr told Swansea crown court that at the end of the prosecution case against David Bryan Thorley, aged 56, he had decided there was insufficient "evidence of quality" against him in relation to eight of the charges.
The jury will be instructed to return verdicts of not guilty and will later retire to consider the 11 remaining charges.
Judge Burr said there was only one issue in the case, did Thorley derive sexual gratification from his behaviour towards the children he is accused of assaulting?
He said that in many of the instances described there had been "absolutely no evidence at all of sexual touching."
Judge Burr said Thorley was not on trial for acting inappropriately or inadvisably and a jury properly directed by a judge could not safely convict on eight of the charges.
He stressed that that did not mean he, as the judge, thought that Thorley was guilty of the remaining 11 charges, only that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to consider.
Thorley will begin to give evidence from the witness box later today.
The prosecution maintain that Thorley had "an unhealthy interest in young girls" and abused his position to intimately examine the children and to apply medication in a "wholly inappropriate manner."
Thorley, of Bryn Heulog, Heol Penlanffos, Carmarthen, denies all the charges against him.
After his arrest Thorley told police he felt it was his duty under child protection guidelines to treat the children as he had and he had always ensured a woman was present.
The trial continues.
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