A MAN accused of raping a young girl when he was a teenager could face a retrial after a jury failed to return a verdict.

Adam Blake, also known as Adam Harris, aged 28, was cleared on Monday of three counts of indecent assault and another of indecency towards a child between 2001 and 2004.

The jury of seven men and five women, however, could not return a majority verdict on a charge of raping a child under 13.

The five-day case at Salisbury Crown Court heard that Blake had been accused of using innocent play for “much more sinister reasons” to sexually assault three girls.

Blake, previously of Oldfield Road, Bishopdown Farm, and now Westbury, denied that the offences took place and said he had never heard of his alleged rape victim.

In examination on Thursday by defence barrister Frank Abbott, Blake rejected the girl's claim that they had gone on a bike ride together before the alleged assault. He told the court that he had not even owned a bike at the time.

Mr Abbott told Blake: “She describes you saw her on her bicycle and you went off on a cycle ride with her.”

Blake replied: “I had a bike when I was about six or seven.” He added that he had never borrowed a bike to be able to commit the alleged act as a teenager.

Jurors heard that Blake was seen as a “father figure” among children on the Bishopdown Farm estate and would sometimes decide what games they played.

Blake said he never played on the estate but instead would spend his free time in Old Bishopdown, Laverstock and Bemerton Heath – where none of the alleged offences took place.

He added that he spent time away from the estate drinking and smoking with people of his own age.

The prosecution now has six days to decide whether a retrial should take place on the count of rape of a child under 13.