PROSECUTORS have dropped the case against a former mayor who was accused of a confrontation with a constituent in a North-East cemetery.

Pat Walker was charged following the incident in Thorntree Cemetery in Middlesbrough, on August 17 last year.

Mrs Walker, of Green Lane, Middlesbrough, was charged with using threatening words or behaviour along with Joan McTigue, of Beechwood, now a Middlesbrough councillor.

Both denied the charges and yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that both cases had been discontinued.

A spokesman for the CPS said there was not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of prosecution in Mrs Walker's case while Mrs McTigue's case was deemed not to be in the public interest.

Representing Mrs Walker at Teesside Magistrate's Court, solicitor David Scourfield said: "She is delighted that the proceedings have been brought to an end.

"She is firmly of the opinion that they should never have been brought in the first place."

Mrs McTigue was informed that her case had been dropped in a letter from the CPS.