Tremeloes stars cleared of historic sex assault on 15-year-old girl after three years of hell
The charges were dropped against the pair due to a lack of evidence
TWO stars of 1960s pop group The Tremeloes were yesterday cleared of indecently assaulting a girl of 15.
Leonard “Chip” Hawkes and Richard “Rick” Westwood faced claims dating back 48 years.
The pair, who had No1 hit with Silence is Golden, blasted police for putting them through three years of trauma after the allegations emerged in 2013.
A woman claimed she was attacked aged 15 in a hotel room in Chester in 1968.
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Mr Hawkes, 70, of Chertsey, Surrey, and Mr Westwood, 73, of Crowthorne, Berks, had been due to stand trial next year. But yesterday a judge ordered they be acquitted after the prosecution offered no evidence at Reading crown court.
Bass player Mr Hawkes — whose son Chesney had a No1 hit in 1991 with The One and Only — said a “black cloud had been taken away” by the verdict. But he insisted: “It never should have got to this stage.”
Guitarist Mr Westwood said: “I cannot begin to express the relief we feel.
“We were punished and suffered for something that was simply not true.”
The Tremeloes had ten Top 10 hits in the 1960s.