A man found at the scene with a hunting knife has been jailed - but the court heard he was trying to defend the house
When police turned up following a report that a gang had laid siege to a Coventry house, three men fled – but one remained and was seen to get rid of a large hunting knife.
And despite the fact that Daniel Bryan was not one of the attackers, but was trying to fend them off, he was jailed for 18 months by a judge at Warwick Crown Court.
Bryan, aged 26, who is from Lewisham, London, but was staying at the house at the time, had pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in a public place.
Prosecutor Simon Phillips said that on May 9 the police had reports at 7.30 in the evening that four black men armed with machetes were attacking a house in Kingsway, Coventry.
As they arrived, three men ran off, but Bryan, who was wearing a mask or a bandana, remained outside the house near to a smashed UPVC window.
Officers approached him and saw he had his hands down the rear of his trousers, and was told to take them out so they could see them – but he failed to comply.
An officer with a Taser and another with a police dog approached him, at which he went towards the broken window, took a sheathed knife from his trousers and dropped it through the window.
So the police went inside where they recovered the black-handled hunting knife in its sheath.
Mr Phillips pointed out that the occupier of the house had given a statement outlining that earlier someone had thrown a brick through the window.
And the statement added that when three men armed with machetes had turned up, Bryan, who was visiting at the time, assisted them in resisting the attack.
The court heard that Bryan, who had three previous convictions for possessing bladed articles in public, had been jailed for 12 years for robbery and attempted murder in 2012.
He was on licence from that sentence at the time, and as a result of the incident in Kingsway had been recalled to continue serving that sentence.
Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2021 4:09 pm