A judge has dismissed a case against a Watford teenager accused of a machete attack after the police broke the rules on CCTV identification.
The 17-year-old was charged with attempted murder following a stabbing in the town centre at around 2pm on Thursday 8 March.
The 23-year-old victim was punched and repeatedly struck with a large machete. He was chased for a short while into an alleyway, where he was found collapsed and bleeding.
During five days of legal argument at St Albans Crown Court, defence barrister Mark Kimsey argued that evidence from officers who looked at recorded footage at Watford Police Station was unsafe.
They had not signed in and out of the control room and no concurrant record was kept of the officers’ identification of the suspect.
In her ruling, Judge Marie Catterson said: the officers had made “flagrant and wholesale” breaches of the rules. She said asked for a transcript of her ruling to be sent to the Hertfordshire Chief Constable saying the situation regarding CCTV identification at Watford Police Station last March “leaves a lot to be desired.”
The judge said: “An important training issue about codes of practice on identification needs to be addressed urgently.”
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