Child abuse allegations must be more rigorously investigated to ensure innocent people do not suffer the shame of going to court, the solicitor for former Southampton manager David Jones said yesterday.

Stephen Pollard said the case against Mr Jones, who was cleared of 14 charges of child abuse at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, was "nonsensical".

"The allegations were clearly untrue," he told GMTV.

And he feared that the case could mean that he could throw doubt on genuine cases of abuse against children in the future.

"I was very surprised that he was charged on the evidence that was available. We had volumes of evidence that, in the end, we didn't need to call before the court to show that he was innocent," said Mr Pollard.

Mr Jones, who played for Everton before becoming a manager, was declared innocent when the prosecution case crumbled after the principal prosecution witness refused to testify.

He had faced 14 charges relating to a four-year period in the late 1980s when he took a career break from football to work as a care worker at a residential home for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Mr Pollard said he did not believe that people accused of abuse should be given anonymity because there was a genuine public interest in such cases.

"My concern would be to have proper rigour in the process to make sure that only those against who there is really strong evidence against are charged in the first place," he said.

He said Mr Jones was well after enjoying a big family celebration last night.

"He could have gone to prison for a long time. The nature of the allegations is so awful that he had dug in.

"I had told him to expect a three or four week trial, and I think he is just very relieved we managed to get rid of it as quickly as we did."

Other lawyers have also spoken out about the police strategy in abuse investigations of trawling for allegations as a means of building up corroborating evidence.

Chris Saltrese, a Liverpool lawyer, told The Scotsman that such methods actively encouraged some people to make false allegations.

He said: "This case should never have been brought to court because of the quality of evidence and the witnesses. There is a financial benefit to them in going ahead with this."