Man waved hammer at youths as ‘deterrent’ court hears

Stuart McGhee of Patrick Keily Close in Alford admitted possessing an offensive weapon when he appeared at Boston Magistrates Court.

Prosecuting, Marie Stace said police attended an incident on Grand Parade in Skegness at 7.50pm on July 30 last year after reports that a man waving a claw hammer had been seen being pursued by a number of youths, following a disturbance about a dog. She said McGhee was arrested and he claimed that he had been attacked by people claiming to own a dog he had found and he had only got the hammer then.

Tony Davies, mitigating for McGhee, said there had been a dispute over the dog and, as he anticipated, he would be assaulted, he had got the claw hammer from the tent where he was living and which he used to put in the tent pegs.

He said the hammer had only been used as a deterrent when ‘15 people came at him, knocked him down and kicked him’.

He said he was no longer living rough and had ‘turned his life around’.

After hearing he had a previous conviction for possessing an offensive weapon in 2018, and that therefore there was a mandatory custodial sentence, the magistrates imposed a six months prison sentence but suspended it for 18 months. He was also ordered to pay a total of £213 in court costs and charges.