A 49-year-old man from Bishopstoke has been given a conditional discharge order after chasing an off-duty police officer whilst armed with a knife in Bishopstoke.
A conditional discharge is an order made by a court whereby an offender will not be sentenced for an offence unless a further offence is committed within a stated period of time.
Once the period of time has elapsed, and no further offence is committed, then the conviction may be removed from the defendant’s record.
The terrifying ordeal happened on Monday 4th January at around 13:13 hours. The off-duty officer had spotted a man as he brandished a knife whilst crossing Bishopstoke Bridge.
When the off-duty officer challenged the male, he became the subject of the knifeman’s attention and the armed man ran after the officer.
As the officer ran away from the male he threatened to kill the officer.
After several minutes, back-up arrived and the suspect was detained without further incident.
Andrew Humphries, aged 49, of Scotter Road, Bishopstoke later pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a bladed article in a public place and one count of using threatening behaviour to cause harm/alarm or distress.
He appeared at Southampton Magistrates Court this morning (5 January) and received a 6-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £22.
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This is a disgracefully weak punishment in relation the crime that has been committed. Knife crime needs to be deterred with appropriate sentencing. Sentences like this certainly will not deter.
Absolutely appealing sentence more from barmy lawless uk law enforcers.
Beastleigh Bishopstoke has always had it’s share of nutters, shame the magistrates didn’t (couldn’t?) send this up to Crown for ‘appropriate’ sentencing.