A JUDGE has ordered the Crown Prosecution Service to send a ‘grovelling apology’ to an Alcester teenager and man from Tanworth in Arden after a charge of violence they had faced was dropped.

The judge had heard that it was apparent as long ago as October that there was nothing in the case against the man and the 17-year-old Alcester teenager.

But it was only on the day that their case was finally listed for trial that Judge Sylvia de Bertodano was told of the decision to offer no evidence against them.

The 17-year-old from Alcester, who cannot be named because of his age, and Spencer Jeffs, 44, of Vicarage Hill, Tanworth-in-Arden, had pleaded not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm during an incident 18 months ago.

And when the trial was called on, prosecutor David Bennett revealed: “It should not have been listed for trial. The prosecution are intending to offer no evidence.”

Judge de Bertodano said: “It has been apparent since last October that there is nothing in it.”

Yet, she observed, the defendants, who had never had any trouble with the law in the past, had still had a serious charge, which could have resulted in prison sentences if they had been convicted, hanging over them.

And she ordered: “These two men deserve, and will have, an apology, a grovelling apology, from the Crown Prosecution Service within 48 hours.”

Walter Bealby, for the Alcester teenager, commented: “As a local man once said, all’s well that ends well.”

Entering not guilty verdicts and ordering that their costs be paid from central funds, Judge de Bertodano told the two defendants: “”I am very sorry you have had this hanging over you.

“I want to make it quite clear in open court that it is not just that there is insufficient evidence against you; there is nothing in it at all.

“You came to this court as men of good character, and you leave as men of good character. There is no evidence against you whatsoever.”