I pointed out that he had been convicted of nothing, and that in lae the word for that is innocent.

"Innocent" is not really a word of law; it has to do with morals or with ethics or religion.

No jury--at least in the United States, and I expect in the UK--finds any defendant "innocent". They either find "Guilty" or they find "Not Guilty", or better, "Not Guilty As Charged". But a finding of not guilty doesn't mean that "the guy didn't do it"; it's a technical finding in law that the acts complained of weren't proved to have occurred in the exact way alleged, or that the knowledge or intent ("scienter") alleged were not present in the defendant's mind.

As a matter of fact, "guilty" in law doesn't mean quite the same thing as "guilty" in ethics or morals or religion either.

Dave Oesterreich