A MAN charged with threatening shop workers with a knife has been found not guilty.

Terry Roderick, previously of North Street in Salisbury, was arrested on suspicion of threatening behaviour and harassment on March 27 after an incident in tReds in Salisbury.

Mr Roderick was accused of shouting "I've got a knife, I've got a knife", when entering the shoe shop on Butcher Row, but was cleared at Salisbury Magistrates Court today.

Prosecutor Fiona McMurray told the court Mr Roderick had entered shop "waving a black thing around", staff members Jack Colby and Suzy Lovett and one customer, who immediately fled the store.

The shop's supervisor, Mr Colby, told the court: "I was stood behind the counter and before I even saw [Mr Roderick] all I heard was "I've got a knife, I've got a knife".

"I couldn't see the knife at all. He came closer to me and I stood in front of Suzy and then realised it wasn't a knife he was holding.

"He walked up to the counter and gave me the black thing which I thought was the knife. It was a package which he asked me to unwrap, and I said I wouldn't open it."

Mr Roderick then opened the package, which was a rolled up piece of paper wrapped with two triangular pieces of black rubbish bag.

Ms McMurray said the paper had a "circular diagram containing a link to Mr Roderick's YouTube channel and various numbers and letters around it".

The court heard that Mr Roderick then spoke to Mr Colby and Ms Lovett about crop circles and asked them to use their work computer to access his YouTube channel, which they declined to do.

Ms McMurray said Mr Roderick stood at the counter for a while doing "weird, wavy dances". He then moved the two triangular pieces of bin bag around on the counter saying they were like sharks swimming around, before leaving the shop of his own accord.

Defending, Matthew George asked Mr Colby if he had actually seen Mr Roderick saying he had a knife. Mr Colby said he could not be sure, as the shop had an open face onto the street and it could have been someone outside.

And Miss Lovett told the court that she had not heard Mr Roderick mention a knife.

She said: "He came in and I was talking, so I didn't hear him saying anything, and then I left straight away."

Miss Lovett said she was only in the back room for "ten or fifteen seconds" and would have been able to hear any "disturbance" out in the shop.

She told the court she had not felt threatened, just "a bit cautious and nervous", adding "afterwards we were absolutely fine".

A statement read out from PC Davies said Mr Roderick was "almost dancing on the spot and bouncing around" when he attended his home to arrest him the same day, and that he "seemed unpredictable".

Bench chairman Simon Crichton found Mr Roderick not guilty due to a lack of evidence from the prosecution that he had actually threatened to have a knife.