A judge has cleared a 62-year-old former teacher of threatening a security guard in an outburst at Hove Town Hall.
Brian Tomlins, of Wish Road, Hove, was charged with two counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.
He was accused of putting security guard Hector Bergara, known as Chief, in immediate fear that unlawful violence would be used against him.
Tomlins was also said to have used threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of someone likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.
He denied both charges which arose from a disagreement at the town hall, in Norton Road, Hove, in November last year.
District Judge Tessa Szagun dismissed the charges against Tomlins, a former teacher at West Hove Junior School – since renamed Hove Junior School.
She said today (Thursday 20 July) that there was no case to answer.
Tomlins has been in a long-running dispute with his former school and Brighton and Hove City Council since he was dismissed in 2011.
He had been a teacher for 30 years and before he was sacked he had spent the previous 20 years as the primary school’s science co-ordinator.
