Witness intimidation and ASBO breach charges against Teesside tearaway Colin Watson have been dropped.
Watson, 18, of McCreaton Street, Middlesbrough, who is already serving a four-year sentence for robbery, was due to stand trial on the other charges at Teesside Crown Court.
Prosecutor Shaun Dodds told the court yesterday that two key prosecution witnesses had returned to their homes in the Congo and it was not known when or if they would be available to give evidence.
He said when considered alongside the fact that Watson was already serving a lengthy sentence, the prosecution would offer no evidence.
Not guilty verdicts on both charges, details of which were not given to the court, were recorded in Watson's favour.
Watson was sent to a young offenders' institution in September after pleading guilty to carrying out a corner shop robbery in North Ormesby in April. The court heard on that occasion he had burst into the shop, jumped on the counter brandishing an item in a plastic bag as if it was a knife, threatening the shopkeeper "move or I'll kill you".
He had grabbed several packets of cigarettes, dropping one as he fled, which was found to bear one of his fingerprints.
Watson was made the subject of an Anti Social Behaviour Order last year after residents identified him as a member of a teenage gang who had terrorised folk in Pallister Park.
He is also a member of a family branded "the neighbours from hell" evicted from their home in Carisbrooke Avenue by court order.
