Two staff members at a youth jail have been cleared of assaulting an inmate after the case against them was dropped.

Team leader James Beech, 27, and Jonathan Kane, 34, were due to stand trial with four others at the end of July.

But Mr Beech, of Chilton Avenue, Sittingbourne, and Mr Kane, of Stratford Lane, Gillingham, heard this week there was insufficient evidence against them on a charge of misconduct in judicial or public office between February 1 and December 30 2015.

They were alleged to have assaulted an inmate as he was being restrained.

But prosecutor Jennifer Knight said the alleged incident was not caught on camera, the youth suffered no injuries to his wrist and he also gave varying accounts as to what happened.

Judge Jeremy Carey entered formal not guilty verdicts.

Police investigated the allegations after an undercover BBC Panorama documentary in January last year, which won a BAFTA award.

Mr Beech’s lawyer Joshua Normanton said his client’s life had been in limbo since his arrest and he should be shown the courtesy of a detailed explanation as to why it took six months for the prosecution to reach its decision after receiving an official report in January that disputed the allegation.

“The report proved from the evidence of nine people that there was no damage - no injuries to that child’s wrist - and other reports show he was fighting and using his wrist again at a later time,” he said.

“As a courtesy it would be helpful to know why there has been some six months since that report for no evidence to be offered.

“Mr Beech has had to have his life in limbo. There’s information about him online and it has been deeply distressing to his family and friends.”

The remaining accused, duty operations managers Anthony Dance, 26, and Christopher Lomax, 34, and team leaders Gareth Evans, 25, Matthew Cunningham, 35, are due to stand trial on the charge on July 31.

Dance, of Brookland Terrace, Lower Horsebridge, Hailsham, East Sussex, Lomax, of Timbertops, Chatham, Evans, of Tintagel Gardens, Rochester, and Cunningham, of Megby Close, Gillingham, are all on conditional bail.

The investigation was launched after the Panorama programme sent undercover reporter Robert Padmore to the Rochester site between October and December 2015.

The documentary appeared to show staff using excessive force on young inmates.

Staff have since been re-trained and the Ministry of Justice has taken over the running of the site from private security firm G4S.

Miss Knight said there was 172 hours of footage filmed which was available for the parties to view.

There were also something like 96 difference camera angles in the training centre, she added, which would take five years to review.

Told that there could be an application to break the trial fixture, Judge Carey said: “We need to get this case tried so that the defendants have a trial within a reasonable time.”