A karate instructor who was cleared of raping a teenage girl has had to flee Bradford with his life in ruins because of his Court ordeal.

Ian Siree, a married father-of-two, today called for a law change to protect the identity of people facing sex charges until they are proven guilty as he and his family try a new start in Wales.

Earlier this month a jury at Bradford Crown Court took less than three hours to find Mr Siree not guilty of raping and indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Jurors who sat through the two-week trial also acquitted him of three charges of sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl.

But Mr Siree, pictured, said the continuing stigma surrounding the case meant he and his wife Tracey and their two sons could no longer live at their home in Hartland Road, Holme Wood.

He has also been forced to quit his well-paid job as an engineer in Leeds after the news spread of his trial. Mr Siree, a part-time doorman, said: "My reputation and my livelihood has been ruined.

"What I don't agree with is having my name and address given out in court before I was even found not guilty.

"When you've been tarred with this type of brush it doesn't wash away, even if you're found not guilty.

"I've read about cases like this before in the papers and I was like everyone else, thinking 'there's no smoke without a fire'.

"But now I've been through it and been proved innocent I see it very differently. The stigma attached to this type of accusation is so great that the accused must have some protection if he is eventually found not guilty."

His decision to quit Bradford has also meant the collapse of the Ki Karate Club in Holme Wood, which Mr Siree, a first Dan black belt, set up and where he trained hundreds of youngsters, including Samantha Bailey who became the youngest black belt in the country aged nine.

Samantha's dad George, 41, of Holme Wood, said: "Ian has taught Samantha since she was four. She's 14 now and I'd still let Ian take her training anytime. These accusations were just rubbish."

None of the allegations, which Mr Siree always strenuously denied, related to his work as a karate teacher.

Mr Siree said: "If I was single I would have stayed in Bradford and toughed it out.

"But I've got two lads and a wife and with a surname as distinctive as mine there's no escape for them at school or at work.

"If I was called Smith or Jones we might have had a chance just to blend back in.

"My wife Tracey's been a rock all the way through, and I don't think I could have got through this without her.

"I know I'm not going to be able to clear everyone's mind but I've never been as low as this in my life - I've got to fight back."

His wife Tracey, 35, has backed her husband all the way.

She said: "I've always thought Ian was innocent. He's like a big kid himself. He doesn't come across as the sort of person who could touch a kid in that way."

Mr Siree was arrested by five detectives in his front garden after returning from his mother's 70th birthday party on Sunday, July 16, last year.

While he awaited trial he was ordered by Bradford magistrates not to live anywhere near his alleged victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and spent more than nine months living with friends in North Wales before his case came to court in April.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said the identity of anyone accused of sex offences was made public unless an order was imposed by the court involved. That was usually done in order to protect the identity of the alleged victim when they were associated to the defendant.

Fabian Devlin, of civil rights organisation Liberty, said: "We believe that the accused's legal representatives can appeal to the court not to release their client's name and address under European Human Rights legislation but this is very rare."