For men who "crucified" a teenager in a series of alleged workplace bullying incidents have been found not guilty of religiously aggravated assault.

The men were accused of a campaign of sustained bullying against a Catholic teenager who worked as an apprentice in their shopfitting firm.

In one incident York Crown Court heard they used duck tape to tie the teenager to two pieces of plasterboard that resembled a cross. He was then suspended a metre above the ground to resemble a crucifixion, according to the prosecutor.

The incidents were said to have happened after the teen, now 18, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began work at Direct Interior Solutions.

But the jury found Andrew Addison, 31, Joseph Richard Rose, 21, Christopher Jackson, 22, and Alex Puchir, 37, not guilty of religiously aggravated assault. The four men dismissed the incidents as "banter". 

The company is managed by Addison who was found not guilty of a separate charge of putting the apprentice in fear of violence by harassment but was found guilty of another charge of assault against the teenager.

Rose was found guilty of putting the apprentice in fear of violence by harassment.

Both men will be sentenced in July.

Judge Paul Batty QC told them: "You have been convicted of a very unpleasant offence.

"I have not decided what to do with you yet. Each of you should have known better."