WE’RE pleased to hear that Adrian Foster, who heads the Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service, has personally apologised to those involved in two court cases that had to be dropped.

But we hope he does more than that in making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Aside from the cost of bringing any case to court, victims put their trust in the criminal justice system and are assured that everything will be done to get them justice.

We will never know if the defendants in either of the cases that were dismissed at Oxford Magistrates’ Court last week were guilty or not.

The trials didn’t even get going because the prosecution lawyer in the case failed to turn up.

And so for the complainants, and indeed the witnesses, who had given up their time for the trial, it is not simply an open and shut case.

It is also a waste of taxpayers’ money and doesn’t exactly give the public confidence in the service.

Having previously been named one of the worst in the country, the CPS must get to the bottom of this latest failure to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Mr Foster has expressed his disappointment and has moved to assure the public that “lessons are learned”.

We hope he is right and it doesn’t happen again.