CPS drops separate rape charges against pair

Prosecutors have dropped rape charges against two men who were accused of separate attacks on a 14-year-old, one in a secluded area of a railway station, the second in a vehicle that she had flagged down for help in a nearby street in Birmingham last July.

The CPS said the charges were discontinued against Khurram Rahi, 27, from Smethwick, Staffs, and Mohammed Ismaeel, 23, from Witton, Birmingham, after the consideration of new evidence.

A CPS spokesman said: “As a result of new evidence, it was determined that it no longer met the evidential test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors and we decided to discontinue the case.”