Drug addict threatened to stab have-a-go hero with garden stake

Lewis Anthony Oakland, of York, threatened “to stick” the man when he stepped in to help a woman in a domestic dispute.

Oakland was using vile language to abuse his partner as he stood outside her home in Selby on May 26, heard York Crown Court.

When the 51-year-old was not allowed into the home he resorted to throwing insults at the woman.

Michael Jowett, prosecuting, said a neighbour overheard the shouting and went to the woman’s aid.

Oakland, of the Arc Light Centre, in Union Terrace, York, began to walk away from the home and as the neighbour walked behind him, Oakland repeatedly asked him ‘what are you looking at?’ and ‘what do you want?’

Mr Jowett told the court: “The defendant said to him ‘if you don’t stop I’m going to stick you’.

“He pulled out a four-and-a-half inch stake used to fix garden lights into the ground.

“He put it back in his pocket and pulled out a black-handled kitchen knife.”

Oakland told the neighbour for a second time that he was going to “stick him” and swung the blade towards him twice, but the man managed to move out the way, the court heard.

Oakland left the street, but not before telling the neighbour he would stab him if he ever saw him again.

Police arrested the defendant later the same day and he pleaded guilty to threatening a person with a blade in a public place and having a blade in public.

Victoria Smith-Swain, defending Oakland, said he had used his time on remand in prison to overcome his heroin addiction and hoped to work for an addiction service after completing his sentence.

Judge Paul Batty QC, the honourary recorder of York, said: “This was a serious matter for a whole variety of reasons.

“Firstly, for no good reason whatsoever you were armed with a plastic stake with a pointed end and a small knife. You were out on the street with these items and were shouting abuse at your on/off partner.”

Oakland was jailed for 15 months for both offences and will serve the sentences concurrently.