A MAN who tried to carry an axe into York Magistrates Court has been jailed for nine months.

James Joseph Monaghan, 56, was facing charges of injuring a shopkeeper's face with a knife, and carrying a knife in public, when he entered the building in Clifford Street with a "blunt chopper" said Martin Rudland, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

Staff stopped him at the magistrates court's security cordon and called police.

Grandfather-of-nine and father-of-four Monaghan, formerly of Cornlands Road, Acomb, York, pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon at York Magistrates Court, causing actual bodily harm to shopkeeper Paul Adams and two charges of carrying a knife in public.

His barrister, Andrew Jones, said the reason he had the axe with him was because he lived an itinerant lifestyle and carried his house on his back. He used the weapon to cut firewood so he could make a fire and cook rabbits. Monaghan had spent just over four months in custody on remand.

Jailing him for nine months, Recorder David Robson QC said it was time Monaghan "grew up" and led a settled life. He must stop frightening people by "wandering into York Magistrates Court with an axe".

Mr Rudland said that on October 26 Monaghan pulled a cutlery knife when Mr Adams refused to serve him alcohol in a shop on The Mount. With it he made a surface cut on Mr Adam's face which did not need medical treatment.

Monaghan was arrested nearby and later released on bail. Within hours, a member of the public spotted him putting two knives in his socks in Holgate Road and he was again arrested and bailed. He walked into York Magistrates Court on November 7.

Mr Jones said Monaghan planned to settle down.

Updated: 11:33 Wednesday, April 17, 2002