A MAN has been cleared of attempted murder after a judge ordered a jury to find him not guilty.

Lee Hannan, 27, of Lane Place, Middlesbrough, was accused of stabbing Stewart Delve repeatedly in the head and then beating him with a wooden bed leg after he found him with his girlfriend.

But the case against him collapsed at Teesside Crown Court after Judge Peter Fox ruled that a statement given by a key witness could not be treated as evidence.

He said the jury could not be sure that Mr Hannan had carried out the attack and ordered not guilty verdicts to be returned on the charge of attempted murder and an alternative count of wounding with intent.

The court heard Lisa Mark, the mother of Mr Hannan's two children, gave a statement to police identifying him as the attacker, but later retracted it saying she did not want to be responsible for sending him to prison.

In court, she said she could not remember anything of the attack and when further quizzed she claimed her original statement could have been made up by police.

Jamie Hill, for Mr Hannan, said: "The prosecution is unable to produce evidence that the defendant committed the crime."

Mr Hannan denied the attack, saying he was elsewhere at the time. Mr Delve had "gone to ground", so could not be called as a prosecution witness, the court heard.

Judge Fox said the conclusion to the case may be felt to be unsatisfactory, but said: "If people will not come forward and tell juries the truth, then they cannot do their job".