A St Joseph man who was ac­cused of sex­u­al of­fences against two mi­nors was yes­ter­day freed of the charges.The 47-year-old was freed by Mag­is­trate Hal­cy­on Yorke-Young af­ter the al­leged vic­tims failed to show up for the tri­al.Sit­ting in the Tu­na­puna Fourth Court yes­ter­day, Yorke-Young told lawyers for the ac­cused, that she had no choice but to dis­miss the mat­ters.Ear­li­er, at­tor­neys Adam Raza­ck and Nali­ni Bansee had asked that the charges be dis­missed as the wit­ness­es had failed to show up in court for a fourth con­sec­u­tive time.The mag­is­trate had set the mat­ter for tri­al on those pre­vi­ous ad­journ­ments.

The ac­cused was charged with a to­tal of nine sex­u­al of­fences against the girls, who were aged nine and six at the time of the al­leged of­fences.The of­fences in­clud­ed sex­u­al in­ter­course with a mi­nor, se­ri­ous in­de­cen­cy and griev­ous sex­u­al as­sault.The of­fences oc­curred dur­ing a ten-year pe­ri­od from 1999-2009, when the ac­cused was liv­ing with the chil­dren's grand­moth­er at Farm Road, St Joseph.