There will be no new charges against suspects in the rape and murder of Ontario teenager Rebecca Middleton, Bermuda's chief justice has ruled.

Chief Justice Richard Ground said Bermuda's double jeopardy laws prevent him from considering new charges against two suspects.

"There is a general principle against double jeopardy," he wrote in a decision released Friday. "A judge is obliged to stay a second or subsequent indictment where this rule is not observed . . . Prosecutorial error or oversight is not a good reason."

Rebecca Middleton of Belleville, Ont., had just celebrated her 17th birthday when she was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed in the early hours of July 3, 1996, while on vacation on the island. A botched prosecution and errors by the trial judge led to the acquittal of the only person charged with her murder.

The family's lawyer, Cherie Booth, a noted human-rights advocate and the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, argued that two original suspects in the case should be charged with sexual assault, abduction and torture since an earlier prosecution against one of them had failed.

But Justice Ground said he could not ignore the law, despite his deep sympathy for the Middleton family.

"I appreciate that that [ruling] will be a bitter disappointment to the applicant and other members of Rebecca's family, for whom I feel great personal sympathy, but I have to declare the law as it is," he wrote.

Ms. Middleton was found dying in the middle of an isolated road in 1996. Police arrested two men soon after.

The Crown struck a deal with one of the suspects, Kirk Mundy. Under that agreement — in exchange for his testimony against the other accused, Justis Smith — Mr. Mundy would be charged as an accessory after the fact.

But the murder case fell apart when the prosecution decided that Mr. Mundy would not prove a credible witness. By then, forensic evidence had linked him directly to the sex assault. There was no similar evidence to implicate Mr. Smith.

The court also accepted testimony that Ms. Middleton had had consensual sex with one of the accused even though she had met him just 30 minutes earlier and was a virgin.

Mr. Mundy ended up serving five years for his part in a crime, despite the fact no one was convicted of the killing.

Mr. Smith was subsequently convicted in 2002 of attacking two other women. He was originally sentenced only to time served for the assaults, although a successful Crown appeal tacked on several months. He is currently a free man, while Mr. Mundy is serving a 15-year stretch for other crimes.

While acknowledging the mistakes in the Middleton case, the director of public prosecutions declined to re-file charges because of Bermuda's double jeopardy rule and closed the case last year with no further action.