A VIOLENT man caught with a cut-throat razor and a pool ball in a sock outside a York nightclub has been jailed for 12 months.

John Paul Harris, 34, who has 94 previous convictions, confronted doorstaff after he was thrown out of Tokyo in Toft Green shortly after 1.30am on October 27, Charlotte Worsley, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

In his hand was a cut- throat razor nearly a foot long, and police later found a pool ball in a sock in his pocket.

His barrister, Taryn Turner, said Harris had taken the razor off a man he fought with in the night club just before he was thrown out, and carried the ball in a sock for self-protection because he owed gambling debts.

Judge Neil Davey QC told him: “One can only imagine what sort of protection that would involve. If a pool ball in a sock is swung at someone it is capable of bringing massive injury or death.”

He jailed Harris for a year.

Harris, of Kingsway North, Clifton, York, pleaded guilty to carrying a bladed instrument and carrying a weapon in public and using threatening words and behaviour. He has served many prison sentences for violence.

Miss Worsley said Harris argued aggressively with Tokyo door staff, left and returned more agitated and more aggressive. He had the razor in his hand, but it was not clear from CCTV of the incident that he had used it to threaten. He was arrested nearby.

Mrs Turner said Harris had been aggrieved that he had been thrown out, but the man he fought with had not, and he was waiting for him.

On his release from jail, Harris, who has lived in York, all his life, plans to move to Middlesbrough to start a new life.