COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

A Nuneaton man who threatened to kill himself after people in the town centre refused to give him cash has been jailed for eight months.

Dean Anthony Moran was approaching folk in the street and asking them for money – and when they did not hand any over he pulled a knife out of a carrier bag and threatened to wound or kill himself, said prosecutor Ramya Nagesh.

Moran, aged 44, of Manor Court Road, appeared at Warwick Crown Court – sitting in Coventry – for sentence after he earlier admitted having a bladed article in Pool Bank Street and Queens Road on July 8 last year.

After the first refusal, Moran said: "I'll do it, I'll do myself in," said Ms Nagesh.

"He approached a second witness on Queens Road. When that person refused [to hand over money] he held the knife to his chest."

Moran then asked a woman for money on the Co-op car park and threw the knife under a nearby parked car.

When interviewed, Moran denied hassling people and being in possession of a knife.

Ms Nagesh said Moran had 114 previous offences on his record including three for having a bladed article, as well drunk and disorderly, religious harassment, 40 theft and similar offences, assaulting a police officer and administering a noxious substance.

The prosecutor said Moran did not threaten anyone with the knife but witnesses were concerned he may harm himself.

Probation officer Michael Hall told the court Moran had for the second time breached a community order, imposed by Leamington magistrates on October 9 last year for shoplifting at Debenhams, as a result of missing two probation appointments.

"He has been offered 12 appointments and only attended six," said Mr Hall.

Kevin Saunders, mitigating, stressed that Moran only pointed the knife towards himself, due to his "mental state at the time and other inner turmoil."

But he conceded: "When one produces a knife in public one cannot say with certainty what will happen."

Mr Saunders said: "If he was sent to custody it would afford society a period of respite.

"This defendant is no role model in any sense of the word. [But] it does him a disservice [to say] that he is not making progress."

Mr Saunders said that Moran, a registered carer for his brother, attributed his behaviour to a self-imposed period of 'cold turkey' and added: "He is in drink today but he is abstaining from drugs."

He said his client had that morning attended the crown court in Leamington by mistake but had travelled to Coventry by public transport. "He is making small steps of progress."

Sentencing Moran, Judge Philip Moran told him he had 'a truly shocking record' numbering more than 100 offences - and he had been in court three times previously for possessing a bladed article in a public place.

"Bearing in mind this is the fourth time you have committed this offence, the least sentence [I can pass] is one of eight months imprisonment."

The judge ordered forfeiture and destruction of the knife.

He revoked the community order.