A taxi driver accused of threatening to murder a nine-year-old's family during a ride to school has been cleared.

Cabbie Bryan Kenny-Levick, 42, of Manor Road, Folkestone pleaded not guilty to making a threat to kill in September 2014.

Today, at Canterbury Crown Court, a jury acquitted him of the charge.

During the trial, the youngster - who can't be named for legal reasons - claimed he was too frightened to sleep after the alleged incident.

Giving his evidence via CCTV from a Kent police station, the boy told how he was on his way to school in Dover with a pal in a taxi when the driver told him: "I will cut off your face skin, wear it and go down stairs and murder your family!”

The youngster added: “I felt petrified and had trouble sleeping. It made me feel unsafe everywhere because of the man.”

Prosecutor Claire Cooper claimed there had been a box - which resembled a Monopoly game – in the back of the taxi which interested the boy.

"I felt petrified and had trouble sleeping. It made me feel unsafe everywhere because of the man" - child

Kenny-Levick saw the boy playing with the box and ordered him to "stop messing about".

"He was swearing at him and the boy took this aggression personally and didn't like being told off.

"The boy responded to this aggression by telling the driver: 'Shut your f****** gob!'"

It was then that the cabbie is alleged to have told the frightened boy he was going to "take off his skin, wear it and murder your family".

Ms Cooper said the child took the threat literally and reported it to his mother.

"The threat was made with the intention of scaring the youngster and leaving him with the belief it was going to be carried out."

The prosecutor claimed the child arrived home, ordered the taxi driver to wait and told his mother who confronted Kenny-Levick, who drove away.

But Bryan Kenny-Levick said the account was "fabricated" and the child had lied about the argument.

The jury heard that when he was questioned by police he told the officer: “I’ve been driving cabs for 20 years. I’ve got an NVQ and BTEC. I’ve done numerous school journeys and like, you know.

“Yeah that’s what I say to all the kids!”

Judge Adele Williams asked him why he said that to the police officer and he told her: “I was being sarcastic. I was deeply shocked by it. It wasn’t true. He made up the allegation. It was fabricated.”

Kenny-Levick told the court he had told off the child for misbehaving and not wearing his seatbelt on the journey to school.

He told police there had been “a bit of banter” in the taxi and the child “got put in his place”.

He added: “I told him to sit down, that’s it. I really didn’t turn round and say to him, god I’m gonna whatever it was, you know.

“I told him not to touch something and he’s obviously got the a***, sorry he’s obviously got annoyed with me.”