Kickboxing coach cleared of sex charges
A KICKBOXING coach from Markfield has been cleared of all charges of sexually assaulting four female students.
Danny Ryland had denied all 19 offences he was accused of which related to four girls who made allegations against him.
At a trial at Leicester Crown Court a jury found Mr Ryland not guilty of 11 sex assaults against all four of those complainants.
The jury were unable to reach verdicts in relation to the eight other allegations.
Prosecutor Philip Gibbs told the court last Friday that the Crown Prosecution Service had since considered the matter and was not seeking to prosecute the remaining eight offences on which the jury failed to agree verdicts.
He said: “The prosecution is offering no evidence in this case.”
It means Mr Ryland will not face a re-trial.
Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey completely vindicated Mr Ryland by formally announcing not guilty verdicts on the eight remaining allegations, relating to three of the girls.
Mr Ryland, who from the outset said he was innocent, did not attend court to hear his name being cleared.
During the trial, it was claimed that Mr Ryland had allegedly indecently assaulted three of the kickboxing students when he was alone with them, during warming-up or cooling-down exercises in one-to-one coaching sessions.
The allegeations dated from when he ran a kickboxing club in Manor Walk, Market Harborough, between 2009 and 2012.
The 40-year-old, of Ratby Lane, gave evidence in his defence, saying nothing of a sexual nature had ever happened with any of the four complainants, then aged between 11 and 16.
Mr Ryland told the jury his former students were all lying about him behaving inappropriately.
He said there had been a falling out with the fourth girl, who claimed he had indecently touched her whilst a passenger in his vehicle.
He told the court he did not know why they were making false claims against him, especially as they continued to attend coaching sessions after the alleged offences were said to have been committed.
Mr Ryland said most classes were group sessions, and that if he ever took students for one-to-one lessons, his long-term girlfriend, Laura Schofield, also an accomplished kick-boxer, was always present.
The 2014 arrest of Mr Ryland, who has no previous convictions, led to the demise of his popular and well-attended kickboxing club.