A man has admitted ‘littering the pavement’ with knives as he fled police on Saturday.
Justin Donald Earp, 18, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a blade in a public place when he appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court yesterday (30 May).
Prosecutor Tom Power said officers stopped a Honda Accord in the Cheney Manor Road area of Swindon at around 10pm on 28 May following a report from a member of the public claiming the occupants were armed with knives.
One of the occupants, Earp, of Diamond Crescent, Blunsdon St Andrew, decamped from the car and made off on foot – but officers were in hot pursuit.
During the foot chase, a serrated machete and a Rambo knife fell from the defendant’s tracksuit bottoms, “littering the pavement”, Mr Power said.
The falling knives were captured emerging from the teen’s tracksuit on an officer’s body worn camera – footage that was shown to the magistrates.
The defendant was ‘red-dotted’ with a Taser, and gave up running. He was arrested and taken to Gablecross custody.
Defending, Moses Uzodima-Tawo said his client had been “hanging around with people above is paygrade, punching above his weight as it were”.
He told of how he calls the other males in the vehicle ‘friends’, but told the court they were the true owners of the knives – not Earp.
Mr Uzodima-Tawo added that the other males threw the knives at him and told him to run. Scared, “he legged it”, hoping not to be caught with the weapons.
The case was adjourned to 11 July for a pre-sentence report to be compiled. Earp was released on unconditional bail.
