Grapefruit Knife - English Law

English Law

A legal case in the English Criminal Courts has held that a grapefruit knife is, in fact, a knife. It is illegal under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to sell knives to persons under 18. Trading Standards officers of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead brought charges in East Berkshire Magistrates' Court against W J Daniel and Company Limited, one of whose employees had sold a grapefruit knife to a test purchaser under the age of 16 on 17 February 2009. The magistrates were persuaded that it is was not, in fact, a knife but a "gadget" and duly dismissed the case. At an appeal in the High Court, Sir Anthony May found that this was wrong. Using the definition of "knife" in the Oxford English Dictionary ("A cutting instrument consisting of a blade with a sharpened longitudinal edge fixed in a handle either rigidly, as in a table knife, carving or sheath knife, or with a joint, as in a pocket or clasp knife. The blade is generally of steel, but sometimes of other material, as in the silver fish and fruit knives, the blunt edged paper knife of ivory, wood, etcetera, and the flint knives of early man.") which, he said, accorded with his own understanding, he ruled that a grapefruit knife was indeed a knife within the meaning of the Act and upheld the appeal. The case was remitted to the magistrates to continue the hearing.