A TEENAGE girl waited six months to give evidence against her attacker only to discover that prosecutors had dropped a key part of the case without her knowledge.

Dolly Marshall, 15, has hit out at the legal system after her assailant was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced case.

Dolly, of Mansel Close, Talbot Village, said: "I would never have gone through this if I had known what was going to happen. It was a complete waste of time."

The incident happened in March, when Dolly claims a 15-year-old boy taunted her over her braided hairstyle, saying she looked like Bob Marley, and pushed the front wheel of his push bike into her face.

The boy was charged with racially aggravated assault and assault but more than six months later, when Dolly and her mother Janet turned up for the court case at Poole Youth Court, they were told the charge of racially aggravated assault had been dropped.

Their anger increased even further when they were then told the CPS were going to accept the boy's guilty plea to a reduced case.

Dolly said: "I never cared what was going to happen to the boy, I just wanted to tell my story.

"We were so annoyed the racial element was dropped without even telling us. That for me was more serious than him pushing the bike into me.

"Then we were told if he pleaded guilty he would get a three month referral order or we could go to court and he might get let off completely.

"We said we would rather that than agreeing to a story that isn't true but as it turns out we didn't really have a choice at all."

And Janet, 52, added: "The whole experience has left me very bitter.

"We have been completely let down by the system."

Richard Oakley, head of the magistrates' trials' unit at the CPS, admitted a mistake had been made in not explaining their decision to Dolly and her mother earlier but insisted it was still the right one.

"In reality the sentence that the defendant received would not have been any different if we had not accepted the guilty plea on the basis that he entered it," he said.

"Obviously I do accept that it would have been better if our decision had been made earlier and communicated to her but I did apologise to her and I believe it was the right decision."