Jason Zadrozny was set to be the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate in the winnable Ashfield Parliamentary constituency before being arrested on charges of child sex abuse.

Charges against him have now been dropped:

Jason Zadrozny, 37, of Sutton Road, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, faced a total of 24 offences including counts of sexual activity with a male child under 16.

The Crown Prosecution Service said no evidence would be offered against the Nottinghamshire County councillor.

Mr Zadrozny said he was “absolutely delighted” the case was thrown out. [BBC]

The CPS’s decision followed additional evidence being presented by the defence as their official statement explains:

A file of evidence was referred to the CPS by Nottinghamshire Police in January 2016. It was decided the case met the evidential and public interest tests set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors and charges were authorised.

The case has been kept under continual review and in light of new information provided to prosecutors, the evidential test is no longer met. This specifically relates to the age of the complainant at the time of the alleged offences. We have therefore stopped proceedings by offering no evidence.

As I wrote at the time of Jason Zadrozny’s arrest:

I hope the police investigate and come to a conclusion rather more rapidly than has been the case in too many other recent cases involving politicians. Investigations need to thorough, but protracted, slow-moving justice serves no-one well.

Alas, it took more than two years to reach this point. That’s very slow-moving for all those involved.

Since the arrest, Jason Zadrozny has switched to being an independent councillor. He has said he will now sue the police.