Man jailed over knife threat in street brawl

A man who brandished a knife and threatened people with it during a town centre brawl has been sent to prison.

Daniel Sheard ran to a taxi office to get the weapon during the disturbance before returning to the fight.

Sheard, 22, was sentenced to 10 months in prison after being told by a part-time judge that the offence too serious to impose anything other than immediate custody.

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Leeds Crown Court was shown CCTV of the disturbance which happened on Beastfair, Pontefract, in the early hours of April 15 this year.

Sheard had been enjoying a night out in town centre with his cousin when they became involved in a dispute with a rival group.

Footage showed Sheard initially trying to pull his cousin away from the disturbance before running to a nearby taxi office. Sheard then returned with the blade and was seen making threats and running at people with the weapon.

Members of the other group threw objects including a litter bin at Sheard.

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Sheard fled when police arrived on the scene. Officers caught him a few streets away and used a taser to detain him. Sheard, of Rhyddings Drive, Pontefract, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife.

Gillian Batts, mitigating, said Sheard was ashamed of what he had done and had behaved out of character.

Ms Batts said the offence was not planned and he had not been carrying the blade before the incident.

She added: “He accepts that it was an inappropriate response to what was going on.”

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Jailing Sheard, Recorder Richard Woolfall said: “There was drink, anger and bravado on all sides. It is a very dangerous combination and the courts often come across cases like this where people are stabbed, sometimes fatally.”

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