Teenager brandished hunting knife and threatened to 'cut up' boy's dad during terrifying Wakefield incident

Police then chased Lewis Connell who threw the blade into bushes before he was arrested, Leeds Crown Court told.

The 18-year-old had been in a dispute with the boy in February of this year and chased the youngster to his home. But while outside the boy’s home in Knottingley he pulled out the large knife and waved it at the boy’s father and shouted: “I will cut you up.”

The knife, which was serrated on one side, was never taken out of its sheath, prosecutor Eugene Cross said.

The man then grabbed a bat and came out of his home, chasing Connell and his friends away. The police were called and they found him near Ferrybridge Park.

He was seen to throw an object into bushes near the bowling green before being detained. The knife was then recovered.

Connell, of Carlton Street, Castleford, told officers that he himself had been stabbed weeks earlier and carried to knife for protection. He later admitted possessing an offensive weapon in public.

Mitigating, Lydia Carroll said that Connell had only recently turned 18. She said he also had scars suggesting he had been attacked with a knife.

She said: “I’m not suggesting it’s appropriate, but it’s an explanation why, at the time, he was in fear and felt carrying a knife was a good idea.”

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She said that the complainant had organised a fight between his son and Connell.

Judge Simon Phillips KC opted not to lock Connell up and told him: “You brandished it and threatened to cut him up. It’s a terrifying image for anyone to contemplate. Knife crime generates knife crime. It’s a vicious circle.

“It had a 10-inch blade. Anyone confronted with that would be terrified.”

He gave him eight months’ jail, suspended for 18 months, ordered him to carry out 50 hours of unpaid work, attend 20 rehabilitation days and enrol in the Thinking Skills government programme.