York Crown Court Archives - Page 20 of 22

Heroin dealer in Harrogate jailed for five years

A man has been jailed for more than five years for dealing drugs on the streets of Harrogate.

Andrew Paul Christian Brown, 46, was arrested in the Montpellier Hill area of the town on 17 September last year by officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Operation Expedite team.

He was charged with supplying heroin on dates in 2019 and 2020, as well as possessing criminal property – namely more than £700 found in his underwear following a search by officers.

Brown, whose address was listed as HMP Hull, pleaded guilty and at York Crown Court on Friday was jailed for five years and seven months.

In addition, the court ordered that £716 be confiscated from him, and he must also pay a victim surcharge.

DC Tom Barker, of North Yorkshire Police, said:

“Brown’s conviction and prison sentence should send a very clear message to anyone who is involved in county lines drug dealing in our area: North Yorkshire Police will target you and make it extremely difficult for you carry out your criminal activity.

“Harrogate is one of the safest places in the country, and officers here are working hard to keep it that way.”

North Yorkshire Police’s Expedite team specialises in county lines drugs offences.

Anyone with information about drug dealing in their area can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101. If you prefer not to speak to the police and remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.

Marshal at Harrogate UCI World Championships jailed for cocaine dealing

A traffic marshal at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate has been jailed after she was caught selling cocaine and ketamine on the side.

Ripon woman Monique Shiels, 25, was marshalling at the world championships when police responded to a tip-off and caught her red-handed.

When confronted by officers, Shiels said: “Who was it who dobbed me in?”

Prosecutor Matthew Collins told York Crown Court:

“Information had been received by police…that this defendant was dealing drugs whilst working as a traffic marshal for (the) UCI Cycling World Championships in Harrogate.

“Police (turned up at) the location where she was reported to be and found her standing near her vehicle. Her first response to officers was, ‘Who was it who dobbed me in?’”.

Officers found £333 cash on Shiels, as well as a “quantity of orange tablets and some powdered substance” in a black bag she was carrying.

They searched her car – which she used for traffic marshalling during the event – and found digital weighing scales and a mobile phone with text messages sent between Shiels and her customers discussing deals and amounts.

The drugs stash found inside the vehicle included about 8g of cocaine and 10g of ketamine, but Mr Collins said this was just a snapshot of Shiels’s drug-dealing activities, which text messages proved had been going on “for some length of time”.

Selling drugs as crowds gathered

The court heard that Shiels had been selling drugs as crowds gathered for the 92nd UCI World Championships, whose elite competitors vying for the champion’s jersey included Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, time-trial world champion Rohan Dennis and Holland’s Annemiek van Vleuten.

Shiels was arrested on the fourth day of the week-long event.

Mr Collins said Shiels had only been charged in relation to the drugs found on her at the time, which judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, described as “bad prosecuting by the CPS”.

Shiels, of Water Skellgate, Ripon, was taken in for questioning following her arrest on September 25, 2019, but refused to answer police questions.She was charged with possessing cocaine, a Class A drug, and Class B ketamine, with intent to supply. She admitted both charges and appeared for sentence on Thursday.

The court heard that Shiels had nine previous convictions for offences including violence, breaching court orders and possessing MDMA, an Ecstasy-type drug.
During conversations with the Probation Service following her arrest for the drug-supply offences in Harrogate, Shiels said she didn’t see anything wrong with dealing drugs.

Self-confessed drug user

Andrew Petterson, mitigating, said that Shiels, who worked as a sales adviser for a TV dealership, was a self-confessed drug user.

“Clearly, she is one of the misguided individuals in society that doesn’t see (drug-dealing) as a problem,” he added.

Judge Mr Morris told Shiels: “These courts hear stories of (drug-related) robberies and muggings and fights, burglaries, all to pay people like you…and that’s why you are going to prison.”

He said her offences were so serious and her previous breaches of community orders so many that anything other than an immediate prison sentence was out of the question.

Shiels was jailed for two years – a much-reduced sentence due to the delay in the case reaching the courts and the current covid pandemic that had affected living conditions in prisons.

The judge also ordered the confiscation of Shiels’s vehicle and made her pay a statutory surcharge.

Harrogate cub scout leader jailed for stalking

A former scout leader and rugby player from Harrogate who stalked a woman and sent her bloodstained letters has been jailed for over three years.

Ian Binns, 46, followed his ex-partner in the street, drove past her home “shouting and screaming”, bombarded her with phone calls and text messages, and posted her “begging” letters smeared with his own blood, York Crown Court heard.

On one occasion, the former Harrogate Pythons and Harrogate RUFC player doused himself in fuel — thought to be petrol — and tried to set himself alight in front of the petrified woman, said prosecutor Michael Bosomworth.

In another incident, he threw a bloodstained letter at her in the street.

Binns, who was once a cub leader in the 3rd Harrogate Scout Group, was “obsessed” with the woman and couldn’t accept the end of their on-off, six-year relationship, added Mr Bosomworth.

The victim, who was named in court, ultimately ended the relationship just before going on holiday in September last year because she had “had enough” of his obsessiveness and aggression towards her. Mr Bosomworth said:

“When she returned from holiday, he was waiting for her in his car at the end of the road.

“He walked towards her; she told him to go away. There was a physical altercation.”

Bloodstained letters

Binns, of Woodfield Road, Harrogate, returned to the victim’s home in Harrogate the following day, on the pretext of collecting his belongings, and when she tried to close the door on him, he forced his way in, resulting in another “altercation”. Mr Bosomworth added:

“There then followed a series of (phone) calls and letters.”

In the letters, Binns would “express his love” for the woman and wrote offensive things about another man with whom she had been in an on-off relationship, saying he “wanted him dead”.

In the stained letters, Binns told the victim, “I’m not worth anything. You know I can’t cope”.

Binns, a grandfather who worked as a self-employed electrical engineer, started bombarding her with Facebook messages and unanswered phone calls. He made 53 calls alone while she was on holiday. Mr Bosomworth said:

“When she (asked) him not to send her any more letters or contact her on Facebook…he took to putting notes through her letterbox.

“A number of (the letters) were bloodstained. The defendant was effectively threatening to kill himself.”

Followed in street

He said the rugby forward would follow the victim in the street — in some cases right up to her door.

In one incident, he cut his arm with a knife and grabbed her arm, trying to smear blood all over her. The victim cut her finger during the struggle. Mr Bosomworth said:

“He said, ‘My blood is on your hands.’

“In one incident in the street, (Binns) had a bottle of petrol or some kind of fuel.

“He drank some then poured it over his stomach and set it alight. She tried to put it out.

“He said, ‘What does it matter? It doesn’t matter anymore.’”

In a separate incident, Binns — whom the victim described as “reckless, irrational, dangerous and unstable” — walked up to her and pushed her to the ground. She suffered a scraped elbow.

She eventually reported Binns to police and he was duly arrested. He was charged with harassment, or stalking, which caused fear of violence.

He admitted the charge and appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday after being remanded in custody.

Hid in gardens

The court heard that the victim, who had ended the relationship once before, in 2017, only for it to be rekindled, had kept a typed diary of the harrowing events and the “self-pitying” letters sent to her. Mr Bosomworth said:

“He was threatening to harm himself or even to commit suicide and (was) making her feel she was responsible for that.

“The worrying feature is the repetitive nature of (the letters) and the number of times he is driving past her, following her and (he is) clearly, completely obsessed with her.”

The victim said she was still terrified and “hyper aware” when out in public despite Binns having been remanded in jail.

She said she used to “hide in people’s gardens so he couldn’t see me”, adding:

“He used to wait at the end of my street for me; he used to frighten me.

“He would get out of his van and shout at me. He was so angry.”

She said she was “very distressed” and had had “nightmares… about being chased, attacked, murdered”. She added:

“I’ve sadly come to terms with the fact that this is now my life; it will always be there.”

‘Outside normal behaviour’

Defence barrister Robert Mochrie said Binns had “certain” mental health issues and was taking tranquilizers at the time of the offences, but his stalking campaign was “so extreme that it is (outside) normal human behaviour”.

Recorder Alex Menary described Binns’ offending between September and December last year as “disturbing, inexplicable (and) extreme” for a man who had previously led a relatively blame-free life and volunteered for the Scouts.

He said the stalking campaign had had a “devastating” effect on the victim.

Binns was jailed for three years and four months and made subject to a lifetime restraining order, which bans him contacting the victim or going anywhere near her home.

Man jailed for breaking police officer’s leg and threatening ex-partner

A Harrogate man has been jailed for breaking a police officer’s leg and terrorising his ex-partner.

Shane Povey, 38, started berating officers when he turned up at an incident in Boroughbridge.

As officers were breaking up a fight between two men, Povey – who knew one of the warring parties – turned up in a friend’s car, got out and started shouting and swearing at police, York Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Stephen Littlewood said:

“Mr Povey was remonstrating with police, asking who had reported the incident.”

Police told him to leave the scene, whereupon Povey, who was drunk, walked back to the vehicle, hurling a volley of abuse as he did so.

When police tried to arrest him, Povey grabbed two of the officers by the arm and shoved them away. One of the officers lost his balance, fell to the ground and felt his ankle crack.

Povey was restrained by other officers using pepper spray. The injured officer, who was lying “in agony” on the ground, suffered a broken ankle, fractures to his shin bone and ligament damage.

He needed two operations for his broken leg and was left with severe mobility problems and relying on crutches.

The incident had left deep psychological scars and the officer suffered lost earnings due to absence from work and restricted duties thereafter. He had been receiving ongoing orthopaedic treatment and was still unable to run.

Making threats

Povey, of Dene Park, Harrogate, was released on bail following the incident on August 1, 2019, but on January 17 last year he decided to seek out his ex-partner.

The victim, a mother-of-one who was named in court, had ended the relationship a few weeks before, but Povey bombarded her “throughout the day” with unanswered phone calls and a flurry of text messages “demanding money from her”.

In the evening, he turned up at her home in Boroughbridge and started banging at her door and windows, shouting dire threats and threatening to “do her car in”.

The victim – who had ended the relationship with Povey “because of concerns over his behaviour and the way he was treating her” – was in the living room “shaking” and refused to answer the door. She called police but then heard a “smash” and the car alarm going off.

Povey eventually left, but when she went outside, she found that all four tyres on her three-day-old Audi A1, a special mobility vehicle, had been slashed and were completely flat. Her front door had also been damaged.

The victim found a kitchen knife on the ground near her vehicle. Subsequent police analysis showed that the knife bore Povey’s DNA.

He was charged with criminal damage, putting his partner in fear of violence, causing serious injury to the officer, albeit without intent, and possessing a knife.

Previous convictions

After his initial denials, Povey ultimately admitted three counts including the attack on the officer and possessing a knife. One other charge was allowed to lie on file.

The court heard that Povey had six previous convictions, mainly for drug offences including production of a Class B drug.

Ian Cook, for Povey, said his client had only taken the knife to the scene to slash the tyres and not to use against the victim. He said his life had been marred by drug and alcohol abuse which had exacerbated mental health issues.

Povey had been “greatly distressed” following the break-up of his relationship with the victim, but he had never been violent to her nor any other women previously, added Mr Cook.

Judge Simon Hickey said although he recognised that Povey wasn’t habitually violent and was remorseful for his actions, he had no option but to send him straight to prison due to the seriousness of the offences against his ex-partner and the attack on the police officer which had had an “extreme” effect upon him.

The judge also noted the “significant damage” caused to the woman’s Audi and the fact she was “terrified” during the incident.

Povey was given a two-and-a-half year jail sentence but will only serve a tiny fraction of that because of the time he had already spent on remand in Hull Prison. He was also slapped with a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting his ex-partner or entering the road where she lives.

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Harrogate flasher on sex offenders list for 10 years

A Harrogate man who was “smiling” while he exposed himself to a woman in February 2019 has been placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

James Bryant, from Sunnybank Shaw Mills, parked at a Harrogate filling station and waited until all the cars had left before entering the shop and performed the lewd act to the female cashier.

During his trial in November, heard at York Crown Court, Bryant avoided jail and was given a suspended sentence.

The case returned to virtual court today because the judge didn’t make an order for Bryant to be put on the register during the trial.

Judge, Sean Morris, placed Bryant on the sex offenders register for 10 years. This sentence comes with notification requirements this means any changes such as new addresses must be updated.

Bryant didn’t appear in court today due to a technical glitch with his video link.

During his initial sentencing the court was told the incident lasted half a minute with CCTV showing Bryant “briefly smiling” at the victim before walking out and driving away.

He was arrested two weeks later and was found to be keeping a machete, hunting knife and a lock knife in the boot of his car.

Bryant had a previous conviction for flashing in 2016 when he was convicted of indecent exposure at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The court was told Bryant had mental health problems, his defence Aisha Wadoodi said his problems were largely “of his own making” due to his “heavy use” of cannabis.

Teen’s sentence for drug dealing reduced ‘in part due to covid in prisons’

A crack-cocaine dealer has been jailed for more than two years for peddling the potentially lethal drug in Harrogate.

Michael Balog, 19, was still on prison licence for previous offences when he was caught with what turned out to be a relatively small amount of the Class A drug in the town.

But prosecutor Lewis Allan Kerr told York Crown Court that the teenager had been street dealing, ostensibly to pay back a debt.

Recorder Tahir Khan QC, who jailed Balog for two years and four months, told him:

“We are talking about the supply at street level of Class A drugs.

“It’s general knowledge that Class A drugs, and the supply of them, cause misery and the courts have to take a hard line on people who involve themselves in this type of conduct, even at the level that you were at.”

York Crown Court

Appearing via video link yesterday, Balog, of Kennion Road, Harrogate, admitted possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply. He was caught with the drugs at Cheltenham Mount on October 2.

Jeremy Barton, for Balog, said the teenager had been using drugs himself after being released from his last prison sentence and started dealing to pay off debts. Although Balog had previous convictions, he had none for drug dealing.

Mr Khan QC told Balog:

“You’ve been in trouble before and (the dealing offence) was about six to seven months after you were released from your last (prison) sentence.”

Jailing Balog for 28 months, Mr Khan said he had reduced the sentence that he originally had in mind due to the “powerful” mitigation, the teenager’s timely guilty plea and the Covid crisis, which was prevalent in prisons.

Child abuse images offender sent back to jail for breach

A former hospital IT expert who downloaded more than three-quarters of a million indecent images of children has been jailed again after breaching a court order designed to prevent reoffending.

Martin Richard Shepherd, 49, was jailed for five years in 2017 after police found 748,000 illegal images of children on his computer equipment.

Shepherd, who was working as an IT support officer at Harrogate District Hospital at the time, was released from jail part way through his sentence but remained subject to strict curbs on his internet use, which meant he had to make his computer devices available for inspection and prohibited him from deleting his search history.

In September this year, however, supervising officers found that he had been removing evidence of his internet activity, York Crown Court heard.

Police seized a tablet from his Harrogate home and discovered Shepherd had downloaded a “vast amount” of pornography including indecent images of children, said prosecutor Matthew Collins.

Shepherd told officers that he “couldn’t help himself” and that he needed to be “institutionalised”.

York Crown Court

The IT expert – who was forced to resign from his job at Harrogate Hospital in October 2016 following his arrest for the first set of offences – appeared for sentence on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.

Mr Collins said that police found “large amounts” of data on Shepherd’s Android tablet after the unannounced visit on September 2, used over a four-month period between May and September. Mr Collins said:

“The defendant claimed that this could be explained by (deleting) some (video) games. He suddenly became very upset, distressed and apologised.”

Shepherd admitted to officers that he had been deleting his internet history “because he had been embarrassed about what they might have found”. Mr Collins added:

“He admitted watching both adult and child pornography. He said he couldn’t stop himself (and that) he kept going back to a protected site.”

‘Couldn’t resist the urge’

Shepherd confessed that he had been viewing indecent videos of children at least “twice a week” and sometimes on a daily basis. He said it was mainly sex scenes involving female children aged 10 and over.

He would then “delete the account” on the website for fear of being caught. Shepherd told police he “couldn’t resist the urge to watch child pornography on a daily basis”.

Shepherd, formerly of Chatsworth Grove, was described as a loner who had never had an intimate adult relationship. He was said to have a “particular interest” in the sexual abuse of girls between the ages of 10 and 14.

In 2016, police cyber-crime detectives found that he had amassed about three-quarters of a million indecent image of children after using his computer skills to avoid detection for about 14 years, using his expertise to encrypt the images.

Shepherd, who worked in the IT department at Harrogate Hospital for 22 years, trawled the dark web for indecent images from May 2002 to the time of his arrest in June 2016. Police found a “massive library collection” of photos and videos featuring the serious sexual abuse of “very young” children including 12-month-old babies and youngsters who had been drugged or plied with alcohol.

Of the 748,000 illegal images found on his equipment, just under 9,000 photos and videos were rated Category A – the worst kind of such material.

Shepherd had painstakingly catalogued the images in 22 encrypted volumes and used an “extremely complex” system of passwords to hide them. Other images were deleted. He also distributed at least 19 videos on a paedophilic file-sharing site and spied on naked and barely-dressed teenagers at a property in Harrogate after setting up covert video equipment.

The sentencing judge at the time said it was “the worst case of its type that I have had to deal with in a long time in the law”.

In January 2017, Shepherd was given a five-year jail sentence and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life for making and distributing indecent images of children, as well as gaining unauthorised access to private computer files at Harrogate Hospital and two counts of voyeurism related to webcams he had set up to take video footage of two female teenagers getting undressed in 2005 and 2012.

Richard Reed, mitigating at this week’s breach hearing, said Shepherd still had problems “controlling his urges”. He said:

“He says the only way forward is for him to have a complete ban on accessing the internet in any form.”

Judge Simon Hickey said Shepherd was clearly a “dangerous” offender who had breached the order before. He told Shepherd:

“You said you were deleting (video) games, but the vast amount of material deleted (was) over 125 gigabytes. It must have been a vast amount of indecent material. Like you say, you can’t help it.”

Shepherd was given a two-year jail term and told he must serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars, or until the Parole Board deemed him fit to be released.

Mr Hickey also ordered that Shepherd must serve an extended four-year period on prison licence upon his eventual release from jail.

Three men to appear in court following raid on Starbeck ATM

Three men are due to appear in court next week charged with conspiracy to steal and aggravated vehicle taking after they targeted three ATMs, including one in Starbeck.

The men targeted the ATMs between March 4 and March 10 and started with an attack on one in in Doncaster where large amounts of cash were stolen.

They subsequently targeted another in Shepshed, Leicestershire and one in Starbeck, Harrogate – both of these attempts were unsuccessful.

Police arrested the men following a high speed pursuit in York in the early hours of Tuesday, March 10.

The stolen vehicle they were driving, a white Seat Leon, was later found abandoned in a hedge near the York Designer Outlet shopping centre.

The three suspects were found in a tree shortly afterwards when they were spotted by the NPAS police helicopter.

They will appear before York Crown Court on Thursday, November 26.

Harrogate teen jailed for supplying heroin and cocaine

A Harrogate drug runner has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

Daniel Chatten, 18, was first arrested in July when police spotted him walking away from a known drug user in the town centre, York Crown Court heard.

He was bailed pending further enquiries but was then caught “bang at it” again, said prosecutor Dan Cordey.

On this occasion, police spotted the teenager on Coach Road, arrested him and searched his home, where they found dozens of wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.

Chatten was inordinately co-operative with police, even telling them where to find the drugs cache, adding helpfully: “There’s loads!”

The teen appeared for sentence via video link on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

High purity cocaine

Mr Cordey said officers on patrol in Tower Street on July 6 spotted Chatten “walking away from a known drug user”.

He ran off but was stopped in Victoria Avenue. Officers searched him and found £675 in his rucksack, as well as a “debt list” and a mobile phone that was “constantly ringing”.

They also found 100 wraps of Class A drugs in his underpants, including 57 wraps of “high-purity” cocaine and 43 wraps of heroin.

As he was being arrested, Chatten bragged to officers that the cash found on him “wasn’t even half of a day’s takings”.

Mr Cordey said Chatten was operating as a drug “runner” on behalf of suppliers higher up the chain who badgered the teen with text messages such as “Sort it out” and “It’s getting late”.

Chatten was released on bail following his arrest, but about six weeks later patrol officers spotted him on Coach Road. Again, he tried to scuttle off but officers recognised him from his first arrest and he was quickly apprehended.

They found a single wrap of cocaine, which Chatten had stuffed inside a cigarette lighter after unscrewing the top. Chatten’s phone was “ringing constantly again”, said Mr Cordey.

Drugs kept in sock

During a subsequent search of Chatten’s home, he told officers where they would find the drugs stash and added: “There’s loads – they’re in the wardrobe, in a sock in a jacket pocket.”
Inside the wardrobe were two purple tubs containing 22 wraps of cocaine and 11 wraps of heroin.

Officers also found a snap bag, inside which were 23 smaller bags of heroin, a set of weighing scales, £160 in cash and 23 “deal” bags of crack cocaine.

In August at York Magistrates’ Court, Chatten, of no fixed address, was given a 12-month conditional discharge for sending an offensive or menacing text message on February 27.

Magistrates committed him to the crown court for sentence on the drugs matters.

Nicholas Leadbeater, for Chatten, said his young client had no previous convictions for drug offences.

He said Chatten had begun selling drugs so he could buy his own house, and after his initial arrest he continued peddling heroin and cocaine to repay his “employers” for the drugs seized by police.

Jailing Chatten for three-and-a-half years, judge Sean Morris said he could not overlook the fact the teenager had been dealing potentially lethal substances that “create misery”. He added:

“To make things worse, once arrested – albeit (you were) honest with police – you were bang at it straight away because you were in debt.”

The judge made a confiscation order in relation to the cash seized from Chatten.

Harrogate man escapes jail after flashing at woman

A Harrogate man who exposed himself to a petrol station cashier then performed a lewd act in front of her has been spared jail.

James Bryant, 38, parked at a Harrogate filling station and waited until the last car had left the forecourt before walking into the shop and baring himself in front of the woman.

CCTV footage showed Bryant “smiling” during the incident, prosecutor Rob Stephenson told York Crown Court.

The woman called police, who located Bryant about a fortnight later and found a machete, hunting knife and a lock knife inside his boot during a search of his vehicle.

The court heard that Bryant, a heavy cannabis user, had effectively been living out of his car after losing money in cryptocurrency and failing to land a job after moving from Cambridge to Harrogate.

‘Afraid for her life’

Mr Stephenson said the incident at the petrol station occurred just before 7pm on February 27 last year, when Bryant waited “for about one minute” for the forecourt to clear before homing in on the lone female shop worker.

The incident lasted about half a minute as the shocked and “distressed” victim told Bryant to get out.

“The defendant can be seen briefly smiling at (the named victim) before walking out and driving away,” said Mr Stephenson.

Police enquiries revealed that Bryant had driven into another filling station just before the incident but left immediately because it was busy.

They identified Bryant from CCTV footage and he was arrested about two weeks after the incident when an officer spotted his vehicle in Harrogate.

During a search of his car, police found the three knives in the boot surrounded by household items belonging to Bryant.

He said he had been driving around with the knives inside his car since moving home two months previously.

The victim said she was “afraid for her life” and initially frightened to return to work.

“She now locks the shop door in the evening and only allows people in if she feels confident in her safety,” added Mr Stephenson.

Lost £50,000 on cryptocurrency

Bryant, of Sunnybank, Shaw Mills, ultimately admitted outraging public decency and possessing the knives. He appeared for sentence on Monday.

The court heard that Bryant had a previous conviction for flashing from 2016 when he was convicted of indecent exposure at Bournemouth Crown Court. He had one other conviction for cannabis possession.

Aisha Wadoodi, for Bryant, said her client hadn’t been given proper rehabilitation since his last conviction.

She said that Bryant had mental health problems largely “of his own making” due to his “heavy use” of cannabis and “itinerant” lifestyle.

“He moved from Cambridge to Harrogate and thought there (would be) employment (but) there wasn’t,” she added.

She said character references from family members “spoke of a completely different side to him” and that Bryant had suffered a “series of misfortunes” in his life — including the loss of more than £50,000 in crypto currency – which had “triggered” his behaviour. He was now claiming Universal Credit.

Cannabis warning

Judge Sean Morris told Bryant:

“You clearly have a problem and it’s a major problem. It’s probably self-induced from the use of cannabis, which people do not realise can trigger major problems very easily, and the sooner people realise that this isn’t a pleasant little recreational drug, the better.”

Bryant was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years so he could get help for his mental health problems.

The judge also accepted there were no “sinister” motives behind the machete discovered in Bryant’s car, where he kept “all his worldly possessions”.

Bryant was also ordered to complete a 40-day rehabilitation programme and a 90-day sex-offending prevention course.