A MOTHER broke down in tears when a judge threw out child cruelty allegations against her to spare her eight-year-old daughter from having to give evidence against her.

The Crown Prosecution Service alleged that when the mother left her three children alone in the York area on three separate occasions, they got up to "various extremely bizarre and undesirable things".

But Judge Jonathan Crabtree refused to let the case go before a jury.

"It seems totally wrong anyone should have contemplated in a situation of this type calling a child of this age against her mother," he said.

The courts had to protect children, not force them into a situation where they could cause their mother to be convicted and have to live with that for the rest of their lives.

He said social services should refuse consent for the girl to give evidence. The court heard that the children are already in foster care and could be adopted.

For the mother, David Bradshaw claimed she had never left the children alone and said the prosecution case was mainly hearsay.

After the court case a spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said the service would study the judge's comments and decide the appropriate course of action.

Tony Lidgate for North Yorkshire police, who investigated the child's allegations, said that the CPS decided whether or not to prosecute. If young children had been left alone, that was a criminal offence and the police had a duty to investigate.

A York social services spokesman said that in this case because the children may be adopted they would lose contact with the mother.

In cases involving families, officers had to balance the potential harm of the mother's actions on the children with the effect on the family relationship.

The CPS still has the option of restarting the case as there was no conviction or acquittal.

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