A 26-year-old man accused of stabbing a Suffolk teenager on the arm and in the back has been cleared after the alleged victim said she no longer wanted to co-operate with the prosecution.

Dimitri Coxon, who had denied wounding the 16-year-old girl with intent to her grievous bodily harm and a less serious charge of wounding, wept in the dock at Ipswich Crown Court as Judge Martyn Levett directed a jury to return not guilty verdicts on both charges.

The court heard that the alleged victim had stated she no longer wanted to co-operate with the prosecution.

The teenager had been asleep on a friend’s sofa in a bungalow in School Lane, Bardwell and woke on October 5 to allegedly find Coxon with her handbag.

Coxon allegedly stabbed her in the arm and back when she tried to get her bag back.

The girl suffered a punctured lung as a result of the wound to her back and spent a couple of days in hospital.

After his arrest Coxon, of Lockyer Street, Plymouth, denied stabbing the girl and claimed her injuries were caused by two drug dealers who burst into the bungalow with a knife.