Scarborough man jailed for 12 months after brandishing machete in Eastfield

Scott Watson, 35, was arrested after police were called out to an “ongoing fight” outside an address in Eastfield, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that “the incident was over” by the time police arrived, but witnesses provided them with mobile-phone footage showing Watson “brandishing a machete which he then places in a white plastic bag and disposes of in a nearby bush”.

Police found the “wicked” weapon in the bush and arrested Watson who was taken into custody.

“On the way to custody, in the police van, he showed officers two empty blister packs of Pregabalin,” added Ms Morrison.

“He said he had taken 45 tablets already.”

Unprescribed Pregabalin - which when used legitimately can aid neuropathic pain and anxiety disorders - is a controlled Class C drug.

Watson, of North Marine Road, was taken to hospital to be medically assessed and was then taken into police custody where officers found two Pregabalin tablets and a Valium tablet while searching him.

He said he was addicted to Pregabalin and Valium, which is also a Class C drug when unprescribed.

Watson was charged with possessing an offensive weapon in public and two counts of possessing a Class C drug. He admitted the offences, which occurred on August 24, and appeared for sentence via video link today.

Ms Morrison said the machete incident had been witnessed by “numerous” people who were “evidently distressed”.

She outlined Watson’s massive criminal record which comprised 51 previous convictions for 116 offences, mostly acquisitive crime such as shoplifting and burglary but also affray and drug possession.

More pertinently, his rap sheet also included two previous convictions for carrying a weapon including a knife.

Defence barrister Rhianydd Clement said: “This appears to be a blip in the defendant’s rehabilitation – quite a significant blip, of course.”

At the time of the incident, Watson’s five-year relationship with his former partner had just come to an end, leading to a deterioration in his mental health and “increased alcohol and drug use”.

She said that Watson had been working with the Probation Service and a substance-abuse charity as part of a community order which he breached in March by failing to turn up for rehabilitation activity.

That order had been imposed for being drunk and disorderly and resisting a police officer.

Judge Simon Hickey described the machete as a “wicked weapon” and told Watson: “There is no reason for anybody in this country to be brandishing (such a weapon) as you did on August 24.

“Numerous people…saw this and were so distressed by what they’ve seen they refused to provide any statements because they were frightened of any repercussions.”

He said that Watson’s record was “shocking” for a man of his relatively young age.

He also noted that the Scarborough man had been taking drugs since his early teens which, together with alcohol, had made him “very unstable”.

Watson was handed a 12-month jail sentence, but he is likely to serve less than five months behind bars before being freed under the Government’s early-release scheme to tackle Britain’s overcrowded prison estate.