Window Cleaner was cleared of illegally having a lock knife

Dec 3 2010 by Colin Rutherford, Kilmarnock Standard

A FORMER window cleaner was last week cleared of illegally having a lock knife after a sheriff accepted that he used it for his work.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that the knife was found when 40-year-old Graeme Ritchie was searched after being approached by plain clothes police as he sat in his car, with two other men, in the Tesco car park in Glasgow Road.
Ritchie, of John Kennedy Place, Kilmarnock, claimed that he used the knife – which he had in his pocket – for cutting rubber cleaning blades and ropes he used to secure his ladders.
Constable Mark McInnes said that he and his colleague first followed Ritchie’s vehicle in August 2009 because they suspected that he was another man who was a disqualified driver.

The PC said that afterwards, he had then decided to search Ritchie for drugs because of his agitated manner.
He said: “When he did come out of the vehicle, he immediately put his hands into his pockets. I immediately asked him to remove his hands which he refused to do.”
He said that, asked about the knife, Ritchie responded: “It’s just a pocket knife.”
Cross-examined by Sandy Currie, defending, PC McInness accepted that there were ladders on the roof of the car, buckets and other cleaning equipment inside and that Ritchie had said that he was a window cleaner.
He also admitted that the man had later said that he used the knife “for cutting ropes or rubber”.
Giving evidence, Ritchie said that, at the time, he had been working as a window cleaner for only around two weeks.
He admitted that he did not have a council licence to clean windows and was claiming benefits.
Ritchie told the court that the knife was in his pocket because he used it while up his ladder to cut sections of rope and cleaning blades.
He also said that when police approached him he knew that they were looking for someone else as he had been stopped three times in the preceding weeks by officers on the look-out for another individual who drove a similar car.
Sheriff Robert Vaughan – who earlier rejected a legal submission by Mr Currie – said: “The Crown has produced a case to answer. It has been answered to a sufficient extent.
“I accept the defence of good reason.”
He found Ritchie not guilty.

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