A GREENOCK man charged with arming himself with a baseball bat and making threats of violence has been cleared after a sheriff found his accuser neighbour to be an argumentative and unreliable witness.

Graham Muir, 58, punched the air with delight and skipped from the dock with a beaming smile at being found not guilty following 'combative' testimony from a 46-year-old man who had to be repeatedly warned about interrupting.

Mr Muir, of Tobago Street, had been accused of repeatedly striking the bat — which was brand new and still in its packaging — against the wall of a common close.

But there was no noticeable damage to it or its hard plastic wrapping in court.

The downstairs neighbour said he'd come out of his flat after hearing shouting and claimed that Mr Muir was 'swinging the bat about like a lunatic'.

However, he admitted under cross-examination from defence lawyer Aidan Gallagher that he had to be 'dragged back in' by his partner.

He said he was engaged in a stairhead shouting match with Mr Muir which lasted ten or 12 minutes, adding: "It might have escalated, it might no' have. I'm no' a clairvoyant."

Mr Gallagher put it to him: "You say you were threatened, did you think about phoning the police?"

The man — who had referred to Mr Muir as a 'clown' — replied: "No, it's no' the type of thing I do."

Mr Gallagher suggested: "There was no need for you to go outside your flat."

The witness responded: "How was there no'? I've got no assaults on my record."

Mr Gallagher said: "You went outside because you were annoyed by noise, you see Mr Muir and you've said, 'I'll come up there'.

"You're an argumentative person and that's what you were doing.

"Did you say, 'I'll come up and kick your head in?'.

The witness replied: "No."

Mr Gallagher said: "If you were a reasonable person you would go into your flat for your own safety."

The witness said: "Not necessarily so. I wasn't concerned for my own safety, I was concerned for other people in the close that I couldn't see."

Another resident, a 35-year-old mum, told the court that she could hear more than one person shouting and didn't see anyone with a baseball bat.

Sheriff Michael Higgins said: "I am not satisfied that the charge is proved.

"The first witness appeared to combative and argumentative, and was also heavily involved in the incident.

"I do not consider his evidence to be reliable."

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