Attempted murder trial abandoned after police lose evidence

Michael Bennison, 28, was charged after 27-year-old Amy Evans was stabbed in Healey Grove, Huntington, last December. But the Crown Prosecution Service said DNA evidence collected from a knife was “not available” when needed at Newcastle Crown Court.

As a result, prosecutors accepted a guilty plea from Bennison to a charge of unlawful wounding. He was remanded in custody to be sentenced on October 31.

The CPS said it had “fully expected to have the forensic analysis of the knife so we would be able to pursue the charge of attempted murder”. A spokesman said: “Of course, we are disappointed to find that evidence is not available. On this basis, we accepted a guilty plea of unlawful wounding.”

In a statement last night, Detective Chief Supt Simon Mason, head of crime operations at North Yorkshire Police, said he was “deeply concerned” by the claims evidence had been lost.

He said: “On face value, those headlines and subsequent reporting represent significant shortcomings in this case which the public will rightly have alarming concerns over.

“However, I am confident that once proceedings, including sentence, are complete the full detail behind such headlines can be made public and put into context, particularly the DNA issue.

“In the meantime, I would like to reassure the public that this case had a number of complexities which were all taken into account by the prosecution team when accepting a plea of guilty for what was a very serious assault rather than subjecting Amy Evans to the emotional stress and anxiety of giving evidence against her former partner.

“Had it not been for her courage, and the tenacity of the investigating officers concerned, this successful prosecution could not have been brought.”