Prosecutors have dropped the case against two Victorian teenagers accused of lighting a fire that killed a man on Black Saturday.
The accused teenagers, now aged 15 and 16, were found unfit to stand trial by a jury in August because they both suffered mild to moderate intellectual disabilities.
The case, had it proceeded, would have been dealt with in a special hearing which would have determined whether or not the teenagers had committed the crime.
The boys would not have had to enter pleas.
But Crown Prosecutor Steven Milesi told the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday that the Director of Public Prosecutions wished to discontinue the case.
Justice Paul Coghlan discharged the two teenagers on that basis.
Kevin "Mick" Kane, 47, died in the Bendigo fire which caused $23.5 million damage to houses, farmland and machinery on February 7, 2009.
The teenagers were each charged with one count of arson causing death and intentionally or recklessly causing a bushfire over the blaze which killed Mr Kane at Long Gully, near Bendigo.
- AAP