Prison for drunken Skegby man who armed himself with knife for third time

Christopher Webb “decided to interfere in a misunderstanding” between two of his neighbours on Mansfield Road, on November 23, 2023, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

He banged on a male neighbour’s front door and revealed the large kitchen knife before returning it to a female neighbour, but denied having it when police were called.

The court heard he has 23 previous convictions for 47 offences, including possession of blades in June and November 2021. Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “He is a drunk and a nuisance and he deserves a custodial sentence unless you can find some way of persuading me otherwise.”

Lauren Manuel, mitigating, said: “This was a short lived moment of misguided idiocy and he deserves some credit for his guilty plea.” She said Webb was friends with his female neighbour and felt protective, but the offence was not premeditated.

“It is something he bitterly regrets,” she said. “He doesn’t know his male neighbour and he has lost the friendship of his female neighbour who had been supportive and caring towards him. It is merciful his male victim didn't feel threatened and he wasn't brandishing the weapon.”

Webb, aged 46, admitted the offence at Nottingham Magistrates Court on January 11. On Thursday, the judge asked him: “Just who do you think you are? You have got no business in interfering in other people’s business - particularly when you were so drunk you could barely stand, let alone think.

“You’re pretty lucky he didn’t come out and use the knife on you because it would have been a pretty uneven contest. Anything could have happened as soon as you walked out of that door. Sometimes I think everybody in this city possesses a knife in the street because I spend my life dealing with cases like this.”

Sentencing him to 12 months in prison Judge Rafferty told Webb he didn’t consider the consequences because his life has become “a cloud of drunkenness”. A five year restraining order was also imposed. “Quite frankly you are wasting your life,” he said. “But if you're happy, carry on: the sentences will simply get longer.”