Former newspaper tycoon Eddy Shah has been found not guilty of raping an under-age schoolgirl at upmarket London hotels.

The 69-year-old, of Chippenham, Wiltshire, denied raping the girl on several occasions during the early 1990s when she was between 12 and 15.

After 17 hours and 46 minutes of deliberations, a jury at the Old Bailey cleared him of six counts of raping a girl under 16.

Wearing dark trousers and a blue shirt with the collar open, Shah, who until recently owned the Wiltshire Golf and Country Club, said 'Thank you' to the jury and appeared to fight back tears as the verdicts were read out.

His wife, Jennifer White Shah, was present in court and wept after hearing that her husband had been cleared.