IF, in walking free from court after being accused of stealing more than £30,000 from the savings of her fianc after his death, 68-year-old East Lancashire pensioner Anne Hindle is deemed to have had justice, then it is of the most shoddy sort.

For this woman has had this charge and the threat of punishment hanging over her for two whole years - at the end of which the Crown Prosecution Service offers no evidence.

This is dreadful.

Why should anyone have to endure the mental anguish of being accused and untried for all that time?

And what one earth are the standards of the Crown Prosecution Service if it drags out a case for so long and still at the end of two years cannot put one together?

It is pathetic. But, worse, it is callously cruel. And being a victim of this can indeed be terrible.

Ms Hindle spent six hours in custody to begin with - during which time she alleges she was bullied and degraded by police officers.

Then she endured no fewer than 18 court appearances in 22 months.

At the end of it all, she claims she has been left penniless and, owing more than £10,000 to lawyers, may have to sell her bungalow to pay their fees. What a high price she has had to pay for her innocence. But where is the justice in this form of redress?

Ms Hindle is bereft of an apology and left without explanation or compensation for her costs.

Typical of the CPS's attitude and approach, it remains unable to comment to this newspaper on the length of time to took to drop this case - their case worker being "unavailable."

But what ought to infuriate anyone with a sense of justice is that time and again, and ever since it was established, this arm of our criminal justice system has generated controversy over its dropping of cases - to the extent that it has become known and mocked as the Criminals' Protection Service for the number of times it has failed to prosecute manifest villains.

Yet, if this set-up is a sick joke, it is high time it was ended.

Root and branch reform must be ordered urgently by parliament and these bungling bureaucrats purged from its ranks.

In the meantime the CPS should be made to pay Ms Hindle compensation.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.