Jury discharged in indecent assault trial

Ivan Geffen must wait to hear about a retrial

A jury has been discharged after failing to reach verdicts on three charges of indecent assault against an 81-year-old solicitor who was involved in the Birmingham Six case.

The Crown Prosecution now has two weeks to decide whether or not to ask for Ivan Geffen to be tried again.

A jury at Leicester Crown Court cleared Mr Geffen, of Sutton Road, Walsall, of eight counts of indecently assaulting young girls.

But it could not reach a verdict on three remaining counts and the judge dismissed them on Monday afternoon.

On Friday Mr Geffen, who was involved in the defence case of the Birmingham Six, was cleared of three counts of indecently assaulting young girls aged between six and 10.

He was also found not guilty of another count of incitement to commit an act of gross indecency.

Pub bombings

On Monday, the jury at Leicester Crown Court cleared him of a further two charges of indecent assault against young girls.

They returned later and found him not guilty of another one charge, leaving them with three more to consider.

Mr Geffen, of Sutton Road, denied all 11 counts which covered a 21-year period between 1977 and 1998.

The allegations relate to eight girls, the youngest of whom was six at the time.

During the trial, which began last month, the court heard that Mr Geffen represented Gerry Hunter and Richard McIlkenny, two members of the Birmingham Six who were jailed in 1975 for allegedly carrying out two pub bombings.

Mr Geffen's firm of solicitors in Walsall helped Mr Hunter and Mr McIlkenny mount successful appeals against their convictions in 1991.