THE case against a 44-year-old Kidderminster man accused of sex offences against two young girls in the 1970s and 1980s is not to proceed at Worcester Crown Court.

Dean Giles, of Hawford Avenue, Comberton estate, denied 14 charges of indecency with the girls at a plea and directions hearing in May last year.

When the case came in for trial, however, Judge Frank Chapman decided that the indictment should not go before a jury.

Some of the allegations related to incidents said to have happened more than 30 years ago. The most recent allegations were nearly 20 years old.

The judge said: "It is so far back and so many witnesses have died or moved on that no-one can fairly know or try the issues to say whether they are true or false."

Delay was always unhelpful to justice. There was no forensic or medical evidence to support the complainants' accounts and they had not made allegations until many years later.

A jury would have been unable to reach a satisfactory verdict, said the judge.