Judges save saucy sergeant's truncheon

A plaintiff with the unlikely name of Saucy Sergeant Eros yesterday established that a strippergram's police truncheon is not an offensive weapon when carried en route to jobs.

Eros - whose name outside his evening work is Stuart Kennedy - found himself at the centre of complex litigation which took a year to reach Scotland's highest court.

He was arrested at an Aberdeen pub after a performance which involved the removal of a full police patrol costume. He was carrying a friction-lock baton, side-handled truncheon and fake CS spray.

The justiciary appeal court in Edinburgh heard that three women police officers - real ones - had watched the performance to the end to satisfy themselves that the 25-year-old was a genuine stripper. But they decided that his truncheon was convincing enough to constitute "an offensive weapon in a public place without reasonable excuse".

The charge was thrown out at the local court in Aberdeen where Sheriff Kenneth Stewart concluded: "There is no evidence at all which even hints at the suggestion that he had any intention of causing harm or injury to other persons." Crown Office lawyers appealed on the grounds that the verdict could open the door to any reveller in fancy dress.

But the presiding appeal judge Lord Johnston told Kennedy that there was no need to hear his defence, because he had already won.

Today's best video

Today in pictures