A Salvation Army minister faces a retrial over allegations he indecently assaulted a 13-year-old girl.
A jury at Hove Crown Court was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Stephen Wilkes after a five-day hearing.
He has already been cleared of raping the girl, now aged 30, when she came to him for support during family troubles in 1987.
Judge David Rennie directed the jury of six men and six women to return a not guilty verdict on the rape charge at the end of the prosecution case.
He described the evidence against Wilkes on that count as "tenuous and speculative" but ordered the trial should continue on the indecency charges.
Wilkes, 45, of North Road, Evesham, Worcester, was a lieutenant with the Salvation Army living in Crawley at the time the alleged assaults took place.
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