A police officer has been cleared of allegations that he threatened his stepson’s father.

Robert Butterfield had been accused of confronting Collingwood Robinson in a school parking lot last January.

However, in acquitting Mr Butterfield, magistrate Tyrone Chin found that Mr Robinson had been “somewhat economical with the truth”.

During the trial, Mr Robinson alleged that Mr Butterfield approached him, touched his face and said: “I will f**k you up. You don’t know me.

“If it wasn’t for my job, I would have f****d you up.”

An independent witness told the court that Mr Robinson had approached Mr Butterfield and called him a child molester.

She said Mr Butterfield drove a short distance before getting out of the car and approaching Mr Robinson, cursing and threatening to “f**k him up”.

Mr Butterfield told the court that Mr Robinson had been harassing him for years and repeatedly hurled verbal abuse.

While he accepted that he approached Mr Robinson in the parking lot, he said he only did so after Mr Robinson called him a child molester.

Mr Butterfield also told the court he recorded the altercation on his phone.

In the recording played to the court, Mr Butterfield is heard to say: “The only reason I don’t do nothing to you is because of where I work, because I would beat the hell out of you.”

Delivering his judgment, Mr Chin found the confrontation began with Mr Robinson approaching Mr Butterfield and calling him a child molester, with Mr Butterfield’s children present.

While Mr Robinson suggested that the audio of the footage had been doctored, Mr Chin found that the recording was an accurate portrayal of the incident.

The magistrate said that Mr Robinson had accepted elements of the recording that supported his case, while at the same time claiming that it had been altered when it conflicted with his story.

Given the circumstances, Mr Chin said the evidence did not support the Crown’s case.

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