Charges against Loretto exchange student dropped

AN Australian exchange student arrested over an alleged attempted rape of a pupil at Scotland’s oldest boarding school has had the charges against him dropped.

George Lehmann, 16, was charged with attempting to rape and sexually assault a teenage girl in the grounds of fee-paying Loretto School in Musselburgh.

The Crown Office has now decided not to proceed with the case following “careful consideration of all the information”.

Officials at the school  contacted police following the alleged incident on November 10 last year, and the boy was arrested. He appeared at Haddington Sheriff Court, where he was released on bail and allowed to return to Australia.

The teenager had been one of two pupils on a ten-week exchange stay at the school.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “Following careful consideration of all the information in this case the procurator fiscal decided that there should be no proceedings against this individual meantime.”