A stripper who dresses as a policeman as part of his act was yesterday cleared of possessing offensive weapons after the case was thrown out.

After 24-year-old Stuart Kennedy walked free from Aberdeen Sheriff Court, one senior MSP questioned why the case was ever brought to court.

Mr Kennedy was arrested in Aberdeen by two female police officers following a performance of his "Eros Sergeant" routine in a city bar.

But he was cleared after it was ruled that there was a "reasonable" excuse for him carrying two types of truncheon and a can of spray, which he used in his performance. The sheriff upheld the defence's submission that there was no case to answer.

Mr Kennedy claimed to have spent 13 hours in court and 41 hours in police custody after being arrested three times over his act.

Bill Aitken MSP, Justice spokesman for the Conservatives, said: "I have to ask why the case wasn't stopped from getting this far. It was never going to be proved and was always going to cause offence to the most sensitive of souls."

The court heard that on March 17 this year the stripogram was stopped by two female plain clothes officers just before he was due to strip in the Paramount Bar in Aberdeen's Bon Accord Street.

The two PCs, Amanda Lawson and Fiona Duncan, originally thought he was a real police officer and quizzed him about his uniform.

But after Mr Kennedy owned up and told them he was a stripper the pair sought advice from their bosses before taking him in and confiscating his uniform and props.

However, they still allowed him to strip for a crowd of females and stayed to watch the performance themselves.

At an earlier hearing PC Lawson told the court: "My colleague and I had never been in a situation like that before. We needed proof he was a stripper. We decided to attend at the bar and after a short time we went into the premises. I was then satisfied with what he told us."

He was later charged with carrying three offensive weapons, a side-handled baton, a friction grip weapon and a spray can, which contained coloured water.

Mr Kennedy denied all charges.

Mr Kennedy's solicitor Iain McGregor told the court: "The two items (batons) in charges one and two were being used as props in the performance being carried out by Mr Kennedy."

He added that the sheriff should throw out the charge of possessing the fake spray as there was no evidence that the item was a spray.

But fiscal-depute Ian Warburton said the batons were not "toys" and did not have an innocent purpose.

He added that although it was not ascertained what the spray was it contained a substance capable of disorientating somebody.

Mr Warburton said Mr Kennedy was "simply a facsimile" of a police officer.

Sheriff Stewart said: "It seems to me that in all the circumstances there does exist reasonable excuse for possession of these items."

Turning to the issue of the spray, he added: "In the absence of analysis by the Crown of the contents, assuming there were any contents in the canister, I cannot conclude that the possession of the canister was with the intention of causing harm or injury."

Mr Kennedy, of Aberdeen Links, who is studying genetics at Aberdeen University and strips to pay his way through his course, now faces a further two trials next year on charges of personating a police officer and using a spray on someone's face.

Outside the court yesterday he said: "Finally common sense has prevailed.

"Anyone with a bit of intelligence can see that I've done nothing wrong here. I was just trying to do a job.

"Just because something annoys a police officer it doesn't automatically become a crime. This case shows that you should never give into bullies, no matter how hard they make your life."