Armed police were deployed to an incident in Wiltshire at the weekend – where a man allegedly threatened people with an axe.
Local officers were first at the scene in Crossing Lane, Minety, near Malmesbury, at just after midnight on Sunday morning (20 March).
Given that they were responding to reports of a man chasing a railway worker with an axe, they put a containment on the area and awaited the arrival of their firearms colleagues.
But a short time later, the alleged axeman is said to have appeared and began running towards the local officers – of which, only one – PC Steven Lax – was armed with a taser.
Unarmed officers backed off, whilst PC Lax tried to taser the suspect. His first attempt to subdue to the man failed, and during his second attempt, he accidentally shot himself in the hand.
The suspect, Thomas Cawthorn Lavery, was eventually arrested and taken into custody.
The 49-year-old appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court this morning (21 March) charged with two counts of threatening a person with an offensive weapon (an axe) in a public place and affray.
He was also charged with assaulting emergency worker PC Ball, racially abusing PC Rodrugues and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
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The defendant, of Brandiers Farm, The Crossing, Minety, offered no indication of pleas and the case was deemed too serious to be dealt with in a magistrates’ court.
Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, asked the justices to remand Lavery in custody.
The case was sent to Swindon Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing in mid-April.
Magistrates decided to release the defendant on conditional bail. He must surrender his passport to Gablecross Police Station and live and sleep at Manor Cottage, in Oakridge, Gloucestershire.
