Plumber accused of knife threat is cleared

Two off-duty police officers walking their own dog on Hob Moor claimed they saw Garry Arthur Wood, 53, take a blade out of his pocket in the midst of a fight with a man whose pet Wood said had caused him to be thrown off his bike.

But a jury found him not guilty of the allegations of affray and possessing an offensive weapon following the row on July 9 last year. Mr Wood said the silver object PC Andrew Pearson and another officer spotted in his hand was his mobile phone.

The allegations were made after the officers, who were on the moor just before 6pm that day, said they saw Mr Wood, of Green Lane, Acomb, cycle past them “muttering aggressively” and that he had seemed “drunk”.

They told York Crown Court they had then seen him fighting and “rolling on the ground” with 28-year-old Ian Gill, who owned the dog Mr Wood said had led to him falling from his bike, with Pc Pearson saying he went over to the scene because he was concerned about public safety and wanted to try to calm the situation.

“He unflicked the knife and stood there, and when I saw it I just stopped,” he said.

“I was petrified and in fear of my partner or somebody else getting hurt and it made me pull back. I can remember it as if it was yesterday and I am 100 per cent sure I saw a knife.”

But Mr Wood, who had cycled to the moor to meet his wife on her way home from York Races, told the court he had only approached Mr Gill because he felt his dog should have been on a lead and said: “I don’t carry knives and I didn’t want a fight.

“When the dog came towards me, I was worried it would bite me and I went over the handlebars of my bike, landing on the ground.

“The man whose dog it was and I had a heated discussion and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. He lunged at me and I didn’t touch him at all.

“I didn’t report it to police because it was nothing and it only lasted seconds. The only thing I took out of my pocket was my phone.”