Elmo puppeteer cleared of underage sex claim

Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo, has taken leave from Sesame Street (Reuters)

A sex scandal will not tear apart Sesame Street. Days after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, they have been withdrawn - the claimant recanting his story he had sex with Clash while still a minor.

"He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship," says the unidentified man's lawyers.

The New York Times comments: "The statements were followed by detectable sighs of relief from those who had been alarmed by seeing the words 'under-age sex' in the same sentence as 'Elmo'"

Mr Clash remains on a leave of absence from the Sesame Street Workshop, where he has played Elmo for decades. Last year, he was profiled in a documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey.

The allegations led Clash to come out as a gay man, something he had previously been unwilling to discuss in public.