Former 2000AD and Judge Dredd artist Ron Smith today was found not guilty of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl in the 1980s.

Smith, 80, had been charged with five counts of rape, two counts of buggery and two counts of indecent assault. A 39-year-old woman in February accused him of raping her over a three-year period beginning when she was 13 years old.

Smith testified in his own defense on Thursday, saying, "I never touched her in any way or at any point."

“I certainly never had sex with her and I did not rape her," he told the court. "I did not even go near her, it just did not happen.”

Smith, whose comics career began in 1949 with Deed-a-day Danny, was a prolific Judge Dredd artist in the early to mid-'80s, and produced the daily comic strip for The Star.