Man pulled out a knife during a row in Leamington town centre - just weeks after being released from a ten-year sentence for armed robbery

A man who pulled out a Stanley knife during an argument in Leamington town centre just six weeks after being released from a ten-year sentence for an armed robbery is back behind bars.

Christopher Boyd had previously pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a charge of making a threat with a knife.

But at a further hearing a plea of guilty to an alternative offence of possessing a bladed article in a public place was accepted by the prosecution.

Boyd (37) of no fixed address, was jailed for 18 months.

Prosecutor Dean Easthope said that on Sunday January 5 Keith Hall was at the car park at the bottom of Bedford Street in Leamington when he saw Boyd, who he knew.

Boyd, with whom he had previously had issues, was coming from the direction of the Pump Room Gardens, and shouted to him to come out of the car park.

Mr Hall came out into the street, and at that point Boyd produced an orange Stanley knife with the blade open and visible.

“There was some kind of argument, and eventually the defendant ran off up Bedford Street, and Mr Hall rang the police,” said Mr Easthope.

Police officers arrived, and when they checked the area they found Boyd out of breath, and he told them he had ‘had a row with some blokes’ who had slagged him off the previous week.

The officers searched the area in the direction they had seen Boyd coming from, and found the knife.

Judge Peter Cooke observed: “Mr Boyd is a man with a worrying antecedent history – in particular 2009, aggravated burglary and robbery, ten years.”

Tariq Shakoor, defending, said: “He served all of that period, save for a couple of weeks, because he was recalled after failing to return to a hostel where he was residing.”

Mr Shakoor explained that Boyd had been released on licence after serving half of the ten-year sentence – but after 63 days he had failed to return to the hostel where he was living as a condition of his licence.

Boyd had finally been released in November after serving the whole of the rest of the sentence, and of the offence, Mr Shakoor said: “He’s taken the knife out of his clothing, but not used it in any way.

“Whatever the history between these two, the defendant didn’t go out looking for him. They saw each-other by chance. It could have escalated, but didn’t. Thankfully the defendant ran away from any possible confrontation on this occasion.”

Of Boyd’s possession of the knife, he added that he said he had been using it while fitting a friend’s bathroom flooring that day, but accepts he should not still have had it on him.

Sentencing Boyd, Judge Cooke told him: “You are a man with a frankly shocking antecedent history.

“Whatever the reason for you having the knife, you chose when you met a man with whom you had a history of confrontation to produce it from your pocket and show him.

“You could not have known what his reaction would be. Fortunately when you took to your heels he did the proper thing and called the police.”