A judge launched an extraordinary courtroom outburst at prosecutors, describing a trial as a 'total waste of resources' which put two people through 'absolute hell'.
David Eastwood, 42, and Jennifer Lucas, 39, were both unanimously found not guilty of outraging public decency, after they were accused of engaging in a sex act near Piccadilly station.
They accepted kissing each other, and a jury agreed with them that nothing else happened.
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After the pair were acquitted, the judge, Recorder Samantha Presland said the three day trial had been a 'total waste of resources' and expense.
The case had been the equivalent of putting them 'in the stocks and throwing tomatoes at them for three years', she said.
"This is not how crown court time should be used," the judge said after the verdicts had been delivered.
"It has used up three days of crown court time, and God knows how much expense.
"It has put these two defendants, who have now been acquitted, through three years of absolute hell.
"It is clear that the charging officers at the time thought it should just disappear.
"It has been a total waste of resources, and has been the equivalent of putting Ms Lucas and Mr Eastwood in the stocks and throwing tomatoes at them for three years.
"That is not what the judicial system is about, and I hope that the people at the Crown Prosecution Service will look more sensibly at cases like this in the future."
Jurors at the Minshull Street Crown Court trial heard that Ms Lucas had been told by police that she could accept a fixed penalty notice in relation to the alleged incident in December 2018.
She said it was 'never an option to accept it'.
"My gut instinct has always been I didn't do anything wrong, so therefore I have to fight it, so therefore I appealed it," she said.
Mr Eastwood told jurors: "I didn't think I was doing anything wrong whatsoever.
"All I was doing was having a kiss in the rain at Christmas."
The trial heard that the pair had met for the first time a couple of weeks before, at a New Order concert in London.
They had exchanged texts and met up again in Manchester for some drinks, to celebrate the birthday of the partner of Ms Lucas's sister.
Ms Lucas, who lived in London at the time, said she was walking back to Piccadilly station with her sister to get the train to her sister's home.
Her sister had walked ahead, and she told how she and Mr Eastwood started to kiss.
"We were kissing, nothing else," she said.
She and Mr Eastwood then went in to the station and sat down to check what platform their train was departing from.
Ms Lucas said she was in 'shock' and 'complete dismay' after being approached by a police officer.
A transport worker claimed he had seen her touching Mr Eastwood's penis.
"I felt as if Jeremy Beadle was going to come out of somewhere because I have never been approached by the police before," she said.
After the hearing, Mr Eastwood told the M.E.N.: "I feel like I have had three years of my life stolen from me.
"I have been a prisoner in my own head for three years.
"I'm just glad it is over and I look forward to moving on with my life."
Mr Eastwood, of Hethorn Street, Newton Heath, and Ms Lucas, of Park Drive, Chester, were both acquitted of outraging public decency.
