A Wirral man extradited from Canada to face historic child abuse charges has been cleared.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court took less than three hours to unanimously acquit him of all the 22 charges he had faced and he was discharged from the dock.

As the verdicts were announced by the jury foreman one after another relatives of his accusers stormed out of court and others began sobbing uncontrollably.

Father-of-two Paul Cleary had been brought back to England by police in July after refusing to return voluntarily, and has been living in Greasby.

An electrician, he had been living in Canada since emigrating in 1989 with his family.

Mr Cleary had been accused of abusing two young girls in Upton in the 1970s when he was in his late twenties.

He denied the allegations involving indecent assault and indecency with a child and during his week-long trial he maintained the accusations were “total fabrications”.