Charges of rape and breaking and entering were dismissed Tuesday by a Hanover County judge after the victim failed to identify the defendant as her attacker.

Michael L. Hinton, 28, had been charged in connection with the Oct. 11 attack on an 81-year-old woman.

Now that the charges are dismissed, he was to be released later Tuesday.

Ashland police arrested Hinton about 12 hours after someone broke into an apartment on Cottage Green Drive and raped the woman who lives there, according to police and arrest warrants. The apartment complex is east of U.S. 1 near a shopping center.

At Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, Hinton was sitting about 20 feet from the woman, but she did not identify him as her attacker.