ACCUSED of chopping to death a one-year-old baby girl during a fit of rage in 2021, a Ste Madeleine man has been allowed to walk free after State attorneys committed a grave prosecutorial blunder that a High Court judge slammed as an abuse of process.

In a ruling that permanently ended the case, High Court Justice Nalini Singh stayed murder and related charges against Neville Junior Simon, 62, also known as Allan Knott, after finding that the State unlawfully withdrew from a plea agreement it had already accepted.

The ruling, delivered on December 11, resulted in Simon being discharged on two indictments arising from an incident on September 19, 2021, in Tarodale, Ste Madeleine, which claimed the life of Sirah Williams and left her grandmother seriously injured.