An American evangelist charged with breach of the peace and making homophobic remarks while preaching to crowds in Dundee city centre is not to stand trial and may now sue Police Scotland.
A lawyer acting for former Los Angeles deputy sheriff Anthony Miano, 50, formerly of Perth, says the charges against him have been dropped by the Crown and the case, which was due to call at Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday, will not now be called.
That effectively means the case has been dropped, although the Crown could in theory re-raise proceedings at a later date.
Mr Miano celebrated the news at home in California, writing on his website that John Kydd of Thorntons Solicitors had told him “that the prosecutors in Scotland have dropped all charges against me”.
However, he warned that he may sue Police Scotland for “redress” after video equipment was confiscated by officers and he was held in custody after his arrest.
He said: “According to Mr Kydd, supervising prosecutors finally viewed the video footage off my camera and determined that the victim/witness in my case made allegations about my speech that were simply untrue.
“The prosecutors found nothing in my preaching that constituted ‘hate speech’ and came to the conclusion that they had no case against me.”
He added that he now needs to decide “whether or not to pursue redress in Scotland’s civil courts against Police Scotland”.
When he first appeared from custody, Mr Miano pleaded not guilty to the charge which alleged that on January 8, at Murraygate, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm and repeatedly shouted and uttered homophobic remarks; and that the offence was aggravated by prejudices relating to sexual orientation.
However, he later lodged a plea to the relevancy of the charge, stating that no complainer was named in the charge.