The man accused of snatching actress Britt Ekland's diamond-encrusted Rolex watch was freed yesterday after two juries failed to agree a verdict.

Carl Hutson (20), of Streatham, London, had denied robbing Miss Ekland of the expensive watch outside a supermarket in Chelsea, in September.

A jury could not agree a verdict when he originally appeared at Southwark Crown Court last month and a retrial was ordered.

When a second jury also failed to reach a verdict after nearly six hours' deliberation at the Old Bailey, the prosecution said it would not ask for a third trial and offered no evidence.

Judge Graham Boal ordered a not guilty verdict to be entered.

Mr Marks Moore, prosecuting, said Miss Ekland was in a Somerfield supermarket in King's Road when she saw a man looking at her.

Carrying two bags, she crossed the road and felt a tugging at her wrist and her watch Technomarine Fake being pulled off.

The man ran off as Miss Ekland's calls of "Stop him, stop him, he has taken my watch" went unanswered.

The actress ran back to the store and found a woman and child she had seen with the man earlier.

Former Bond girl Ekland, aged 56, told the jury at the second trial the man was extremely athletic and had grabbed her arm and she felt pain.

When she looked down she saw blood.

Miss Ekland said she was helped to the rear of the store.

She spotted a woman and child who had been with the man earlier in the store and asked for them to be detained.

Fake Glashutte

Hutson did not give evidence in either trial.

Mr Gareth Rees, defending, told the jurors: "This case turns upon identification."

He said they should convict only if they were certain Ekland was right and could not possibly be wrong.

Hutson had told police he had been in the supermarket with his 23-month-old son and his former girlfriend Ms Kim Walsh - but was not the man who robbed Britt Ekland outside.

Mr Rees said Hutson had left after being called out of the store - an act which later seemed suspicious to the actress.

There had been some confusion at the identity parade, he said.

After giving evidence in her first trial - while appearing in Cinderella at the Wimbledon Theatre - Ekland said : "I felt as if I was on trial. British justice is stacked against the victim."

Ekland will now press ahead with plans to make a film about her life with her first husband, Peter Sellers.

She will be writing the film, which has the working title Snowflake Bride.

"She is very excited to be at last telling her life story with Sellers," her agent, Jan Kennedy, said.

Several film companies are said to be bidding for the rights.