A TEENAGER found in possession of a large kitchen knife in a Penrith street late at night has been sentenced by a judge.
Carlisle Crown Court heard police saw Xander Cossey, 18, with the eight-inch blade at the town’s Old London Road around 4am on December 1.
Cossey was “distressed”, sat on a wall and “holding the knife to his own throat”. He had earlier drunk 12 cans of cider and several “shots”, and told officers of relationship difficulties.
Police successfully negotiated with Cossey, who hadn’t threatened anyone else, telling him he needed help. “He acknowledged and accepted that, and agreed without any trouble to put the knife down,” prosecutor Brendan Burke said.
Cossey, of Mary Langley Way, Penrith, admitted knife possession, and had 23 other offences on his criminal record, including a conviction for offensive weapon possession aged just 13. Of the latest incident, Mark Shepherd, defending, said: “He is still a very young man, clearly suicidal at that point.”
Judge James Adkin suspended a six-month custodial sentence for two years. Cossey must complete a five-month night-time curfew and rehabilitation.
“It is a different sort of case to the ones we are frequently used to seeing where knives are used to threaten,” observed the judge. But he told Cossey: “There are no further chances.”
