Man walks free as child murder trialcollapses

Stephen Knox, 53, from Keighley, refused to comment after he was cleared of murdering two-year-old Mark Harrison in 1986.

He had been charged after Mark’s sister, Kerry Harrison, who was just three at the time, claimed to have seen him throw Mark down a flight of stairs at the family home. She was “haunted” by the memory for two decades before finally telling a counsellor what she saw.

Ms Harrison, now 26, claimed she had been warned by Knox not to tell anyone what she had seen or face the same fate.

But yesterday it emerged three expert prosecution witnesses could not agree whether the alleged fall led to the toddler’s death on December 12, 1986.

This led prosecutors to offer no evidence against Knox, of Ingrow Lane, Keighley, West Yorkshire, on the third day of his trial.

A spokesman for the CPS defended its decision to prosecute Knox. He said: “When deciding whether this matter should proceed to court, the CPS concluded that there was a realistic prospect of conviction based on the eye-witness account and the expert evidence.”

During the trial Ms Harrison said her brother suffered physical abuse from Knox after they moved into the house in Drayton Road, in the New Parks area of Leicester, with their eldest sister Lesley and mother Margaret. The move came after their mother split from their father Colin Harrison and set up home with Knox.

Earlier, Kerry Harrison told the jury she was at the bottom of the stairs when Mark was pushed from the top by Knox.

Within hours of the fall Mark had died from his injuries, the court was told.