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MELBOURNE - Olympic swimming coach Mark Thompson embraced his weeping wife today as he was cleared of sexually abusing a teenage pupil.
The boy had claimed Mr Thompson had oral sex with him while he was just 13 years old, between August 1998 and April 1999.
Today, a
Victorian County Court jury took less than two hours to find Mr Thompson not guilty of 11 counts of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and one count of committing an indecent act with a child under 16.
Mr Thompson's wife, Alison Martin, cried as the jury foreman read out "not guilty" for each charge, while her husband wiped his eyes.
After judge Lisa Hannan adjourned the court, the packed room broke into applause as Mr Thompson hugged his wife and the pair cried together.
Some of the most prominent names in Australian swimming testified in support of Mr Thompson, including National Youth Coach Leigh Nugent and Olympian Brooke Hanson, who also cried as her former coach was cleared.
Mr Thompson coached Hanson to a gold and a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
"He is highly regarded as a world class coach, a great person and I guess somebody who would always be there to help anyone who needed it," Hanson said during her evidence in the trial.
"But from my point of view, he took a swimmer who was always knocking on the door of international competition to an Olympic champion."
The jury was told the teenager was an attention seeker who could not be trusted.
The youth, who was an exceptionally talented swimmer and an early bloomer, cut his wrist and spoke about killing himself, the court was told.
Ms Martin gave evidence the teenager had several long telephone conversations with her and had said he was angry with his mother for having an affair.
She said the teenager told her he hated his family and wanted to join hers.
Outside court, Mr Thompson shook hands with his barrister Michael Tovey, QC, and thanked him.
However he declined to talk to the media.
A beaming Hanson followed behind him.
When asked by the media for her reaction about the verdict she said: "Well, I'm smiling".
Her only other comment to reporters was that she had been in court every day.
- AAP
