Jail for man who waited with weapon (From The Oxford Times)

Jail for man who waited with weapon

9:30am Saturday 16th February 2013 in News

A MAN who approached plain- clothes police officers with an extendable baton has been jailed.

Grant Lindsey, of Croxford Gardens, Kidlington Village, admitted possessing an offensive weapon in a public place outside his home on June 15.

Yesterday Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard how the 21-year-old armed himself because he had been receiving threatening text messages from his ex-girlfriend’s new partner.

Believing an attack was imminent, Lindsey collected the baton from a friend and returned home to wait outside his house.

When a car appeared in his road he concealed the weapon and approached the two occupants – unaware they were plain-clothes police officers dealing with an unrelated matter.

One of them saw him putting the baton into his coat and he was arrested.

He was already subject to a suspended sentence for an affray committed when he punched and kicked a 16-year-old in Kidlington in 2011.

Judge Patrick Eccles sentenced Lindsey to two months in prison for possession of an offensive weapon and two months for the earlier affray, to run consecutively.

He said: “The time has been reached where that sentence must come into effect for the law to have any meaningful effect. The fact is you had a weapon in your possession and were prepared to confront someone with it.”

Jenny Stone, defending, said Lindsey had “a short temper” but felt like he had let his family down.