A YOUNG man has been cleared of battering an openly gay teenager to death.

Jurors took almost 13 hours to find Gavin Alker not guilty of killing 18-year-old hairdresser Michael Causer.

Smartly-dressed Alker, 19, showed little emotion in the dock as the five men and seven women panel at Liverpool crown court cleared him of both murder and manslaughter.

Members of Mr Causer’s family ran from the court after the verdicts were delivered. They wept and hugged each other outside court.

Relatives and friends of Mr Causer have filled the public gallery every day during the two-week trial.

It was alleged Alker had punched, kicked and thrown an American history hardback at Mr Causer in a homophobic attack following an all-night drinking session at a house in Biglands Drive, Huyton.

But Alker, of Fleetwood Walk, Runcorn, denied making any homophobic comments and insisted he had only hit extremely drunk Mr Causer in self-defence. He blamed the fatal attack on his friend James O’Connor, who he said had stamped and kicked Mr Causer.

O’Connor, 19, formerly of Huyton, now of The Brow, Runcorn, has already admitted murder.