A MAN has been unanimously acquitted by a jury of charges which alleged both that he threatened another men with an imitation firearm, and did an act intending to pervert the course of justice.
Billy Wildgoose, 25, went on trial at Carlisle Crown Court earlier this week.
Mr Wildgoose had pleaded not guilty to two charges.
One alleged the possession of an imitation firearm – a Walther CP 88 air pistol – with intent to cause Tyler Wilson to fear that violence would be used against him.
The second charge had alleged that Mr Wildgoose did an act – posting a police interview transcript extract on Facebook, in April this year – “tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice”.
But, giving evidence to jurors, Mr Wildgoose denied the two allegations. He admitted producing an imitation firearm from his pocket in front of Mr Wilson, but said that was because Mr Wilson had expressed an interest in buying it. When Mr Wilson indicated he wasn’t interested in making a purchase after all, Mr Wildgoose said he returned it to his pocket.
“It wasn’t pointed in any threatening way,” Mr Wildgoose, of Hunday Court, Workington, told jurors.
Mr Wildgoose also said that the Facebook posting of a transcript extract from Mr Wilson’s police interview hadn’t been done to interfere with the course or justice, nor to intimidate.
And, after retiring earlier today (WED) to consider their verdicts, the jury of eight men and four women found Mr Wildgoose not guilty, unanimously, of both allegations this afternoon.