The principal of a Derry special needs school has been cleared of sexually assaulting one of his pupils.
Michael Dobbins, who had been head of the Ardnashee Special Needs School in the city, was today found unanimously not guilty by a jury of carrying out a series of sex assaults on one of his female pupils.
Following a two and a half week long trial at the Crown Court in Coleraine, Mr Dobbins, 54, from Greenhaw Road in Derry, walked free following his unanimous acquittals on six charges of rape and on three other charges of sexual assaults.