clean-skin

n. a person without a police record; someone who does not trigger suspicions; (hence) an unimpeachable person; a lilywhite. Subjects: English, Crime & Prisons, Police

Editorial Note: This term is more common in Australia, where it dates to at least as early as 1941.

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Citations: 1986 Jenni Hewett Australian Financial Review (Aug. 29) “Punch-Ups And Paranoia In The West” p. 1: One of Simpson’s most important credentials as a candidate was his “cleanskin” image as a retired businessman with no involvement in the party’s bloody inner politics. 2000 John Sweeney Observer (U.K.) (July 9) “Menace of ‘clean-skin’ drug dealers” p. 16: They use public transport, not Ferraris, pay their rent and council tax on time, hold down a boring job and never get in trouble with the law. These are the “clean skins” or “lilywhites”—the new drugs traffickers who dwarf the activities of the old English crime “families.” 2005 TodayOnline (Singapore) (July 14) “Model citizens, ruthless killers” (in London, England): The Times said that at least two of the men had just returned from Pakistan, but none were on the files of security services. This meant they were “cleanskins”—intelligence parlance for terrorists with no previously known link to suspicious groups, and thus incredibly hard to track down before they strike. 2007 Toby Harnden Telegraph (United Kingdom) (Apr. 4) “Briton ‘could stage another September 11’”: The fear has always been the so-called “clean skin’—that’s a person whose documents are completely legitimate, are not forged.

Posted 15 Jul 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend