A TEENAGER caught by police carrying a knife in public has been jailed by a judge who said of his crime: “I will not tolerate it on the streets of Cumbria.”
Joshua Warner was one of four people stopped and searched by police in Penrith on January 16 after a member of the public reported seeing a blade being brandished close to the town’s Sainsbury’s store.
Warner admitted having a knife which was found in his jacket pocket and had some tape wrapped around the top of its four-inch blade. When interviewed, the 18-year-old said he was carrying the implement for “protection”, and to “frighten rather than to use”.
No other knives were found during the police search. However, Warner denied he had produced a weapon during the earlier incident seen by the eyewitness.
His lawyer, Paul Tweddle, spoke of the teen’s “misguided thinking” and of a lesson “severely learned”, but conceded: “He has become part of a problem which has led to the deaths of Yousef Makki and Jodie Chesney (fatally knifed at the weekend).”
Warner, of Old London Road, Penrith, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court earlier today (WED), having admitted possession of a bladed article in public.
Judge Peter Davies imposed an immediate eight-month custodial sentence.
“The carrying of knives in any circumstances cannot be tolerated. I will not tolerate it on the streets of Cumbria,” Judge Davies said.
“There has to be deterrent sentences for knives. People have to know that if you carry a knife, you not only risk other people, you risk your own liberty.”
