A LINWOOD man has been cleared of claims he was illegally in possession of a knife in public – at his own home.

Gordon Campbell, of Muirhead Drive, was said to have been armed with a knife “without reasonable excuse or lawful authority” on September 27 last year.

The case against Mr Campbell, 40, went to trial at Paisley Sheriff Court, with Elizabeth Haggerty the first witness to give evidence.

Miss Haggerty, 23, told the court he had been in a relationship with her mum for around 14 years.

She also stated that Mr Campbell, who lived in the flat below her, turned up at her door with a knife.

“It was a kitchen knife,” said Miss Haggerty. “It was about six inches long.”

She conceded, under cross-examination from defence lawyer Gordon Ritchie, that she didn’t really like Mr Campbell but denied claims there was regularly “a lot of noise” from her flat.

Miss Haggerty said she didn’t know you could be evicted from a council flat if there were noise complaints made about you and conceded that, were someone to make a complaint, it would be easy to try to get out of it by saying that person had come to her door with a knife.

Procurator fiscal depute Joanne Gilmour then decided she was no longer seeking a conviction and Mr Campbell was acquitted of the single charge, which he had denied.

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