A judge has thrown out the case of a Suffolk Against Gangs worker accused of lying to police over the whereabouts of a night club stabbing suspect. 

Judge David Pugh ruled that there was insufficient evidence to show 32-year-old Meera Acharya was employed in a public office and directed that a formal not guilty verdict be entered on the court record.

Acharya, who worked for a joint initiative called Suffolk Against Gang Exploitation (SAGE) which was set up by Suffolk County Council and Suffolk Police following a number of gang related incidents involving young people in 2018/2019, had denied misconduct in public office in November 2019.

She was alleged to have misconducted herself by lying to her superiors and the police about the extent of her contact with a man knowing he was urgently wanted by the police in connection with an offence of violence and by not informing her superiors and the police about his whereabouts and then secretly meeting him.

During her trial, it was alleged that Acharya, of Castle Hill, Ipswich, was specifically asked to engage with the 26-year-old man who’d recently been released from prison and to steer him away from having a negative influence over young people in the community.

It was said that in her role she was required to work closely with the police and was aware it was wholly unacceptable for a member of the SAGE team to have a sexual relationship with anyone they were asked to work with.

However it was claimed that Acharya formed a sexual relationship with the man.

The 32-year-old was accused she had tried to protect him by lying to police and her superiors after he became a suspect in the stabbing of a man called Pablo McSheen at Degero’s cocktail bar in Ipswich in November 2019.