JUSTICE, it is said, is blind but in the case of the extendable baton of "Sergeant Eros", she may simply have blushed and preferred to avert her gaze.
The long-running saga of whether or not a male stripper's authentic police baton, designed to tease the female spectator, was an offensive weapon has, at last, come to a climax.
Sergeant Eros, aka Stuart Kennedy, a 25-year-old student of genetics
at Aberdeen University, is an innocent man, according to the three judges at the Court of Appeal. In a case of comic proportions, Mr Kennedy had previously been charged with carrying an offensive weapon, the baton, but when a sheriff acquitted him last year, the Crown attempted to have the ruling overturned on appeal.
However , at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday, three judges decreed that the appeal had failed, the full reasons for which will be issued in the future. The ruling will now allow Mr Kennedy to reinstate the extendable baton into his routine, no doubt to the delight of his fans. Last night Mr Kennedy said: "I am definitely happy. I can't believe a case like this could ever make it to the Court of Appeal."
He vowed once again to carry the batons, which had been discarded while the appeal was pending. A real baton, he said, extended with a dramatic "click". He said: "The police costume is the most popular, partly because of all the press attention. I have never stopped doing the police strip, and have no intention of stopping. You can get a plastic, squeaky one (baton] but it doesn't look the part."
The saga of the extendable baton began in March 2007 when Mr Kennedy, in his full "police" uniform, was spotted by plainclothes female officers outside a pub in Aberdeen who mistook him for a genuine policeman. He quickly put them right, explaining he was about to go inside to perform a stripogram, a service he was giving to finance his way through university.
The officers were unsure if he was breaking any laws, but, after his act, Kennedy agreed to go to a police station for questioning.
He was charged with possessing offensive weapons, two police-issue batons which he had acquired by mail order at a time when selling such items was legal, and a canister like a CS gas spray. At his trial, Kennedy's lawyer maintained he had no case to answer as the items were simply props, and Sheriff Kenneth Stewart upheld the plea and acquitted him.
Last week, at the Justiciary Appeal Court in Edinburgh, the Crown accepted the verdict in relation to the canister, but argued it should be reversed for the batons. It was submitted that Kennedy could have used fake batons in his act, and if it was deemed a reasonable excuse to be carrying real batons because they were part of his uniform, a host of dangerous weapons could be carried by people claiming "fancy dress defence".
The judges indicated that they wanted time to consider the case. Neither Kennedy nor any lawyer on his behalf had attended the hearing, and they later complained that they had not been given notice of it.
A re-hearing had seemed likely, and the case was called yesterday to discuss the next move. The presiding judge, Lord Johnston, informed Chris Shead, counsel for Kennedy:
"I think it is proper to announce that the Crown appeal will fail, and reasons will be given in due course."
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THE two female police constables who triggered the strange case of "Sergeant Eros" stopped him just minutes before he was due to strip in an Aberdeen pub.
In order to authenticate Stuart Kennedy's claim he was dressed as a police officer as part of his job, the two officers – Amanda Lawson, 33, and Fiona Duncan, 30 – watched hisperformance at the Para-mount bar, so they could find out why he was dressed as a policeman. As PC Lawson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: "We had never been in a situation like that before. We needed proof he was a stripper."
Mr Kennedy later accompanied the officers to a nearby police station.
