A MAN who threatened to slit a teenager's throat in the street after a football hit his parked car has been jailed.

Lucus Kev Hopkins, 36, had a knife on him when he made the threat in Tang Hall in October last year, York Crown Court heard.

The bus driver didn’t use the weapon on the teenager, but did bring the knife out of his pocket before going indoors again.

Other people including children were present in the road, the court heard.

Hopkins, of Geldoft Road, Huntington, pleaded guilty to carrying a knife in public and a public order offence.

“I don’t know if you have appreciated just how serious this incident was,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told him.

“Threatening to slit a person’s throat and walking down a street where children are playing brandishing a knife before going back to a house means an immediate prison sentence.”

He jailed Hopkins for six months.

Hopkins had told a probation officer he had gone into the street because a ball from someone had hit his car.

“Anything can happen when you have a knife in your pocket,” the judge said. “Knife crime is a scourge. This kind of crime has to stop,”

He accepted that Hopkins was “otherwise a decent man”.

Prosecution barrister Kelly Sherif showed the court a video of the incident in which Hopkins could be seen passing the knife from one hand to another after accosting the child.

For Hopkins, Lily Wildman said: “He is ashamed of what happened.”

It was clear something “out of the ordinary” had happened and “the circumstances are unique”, she said

Hopkins had been visiting a friend.

The friend’s daughter had been behaving in such a way that Hopkins had taken a knife to keep it from her and put it in his pocket, the defence barrister claimed.

He hadn’t realised it was in his pocket when he went outside.

He had gone out with the intention of confronting the boy, and had made the threat to slit the teenager’s throat.

“He accepts it was completely unacceptable to use those words,” said Ms Wildman. “It was never his intention and he didn’t use the knife to facilitate those threats.”

The knife had been in his pocket when he made the threat, said the defence barrister.

He had taken the knife out afterwards so he could move it because it was digging into his side.

The teenager’s father had spoken to him and Hopkins had apologised.

Hopkins was suffering from anxiety and depression and was on medication, the court heard.

He had no previous convictions.

He worked for a local bus company, the court was told.