Bamford was in Town outside Fusion Nightclub on 27 July at about 01:30 when a nearby doorman saw him arguing with three other men. The doorman heard one of those men shout at the defendant to ‘take off your knuckle duster’, and decided to inform nearby police officers.
Pictured: Guernsey Police caught up with Bamford at the Love Shack.
Those officers then followed Bamford to the Love Shack on St Julians Avenue. They saw him with a ‘silver object’ in his hand, but when he saw them enter the takeaway he tried to conceal the knuckle duster. Officers quickly found it, however, and arrested him for the possession of an offensive weapon.
At first, Bamford tried to deny all knowledge of the knuckle duster, and said it wasn’t his. In court though, Judge Graeme McKerrell was told Bamford was shown the knuckle duster earlier on the night of his arrest. He had taken an interest in the weapon and asked to look at it, and had not yet given it back to his friend.
Judge McKerrell said he was not convinced by this account, but the prosecution had accepted it when accepting the guilty plea, so he was bound to sentence on that basis.
Pictured: Guernsey’s Royal Court.
Bamford had a list of previous convictions for assault and also for previously possessing offensive weapons. These had taken place both in Guernsey and in Preston, and had most recently seen him serving prison time for assault and assaulting a police officer.
Since that sentence though, Bamford has turned his life around according to Advocate Sam Steel. He told Judge McKerrell that his client had now got his life on track, and had a promising career as a chef. He had won “Catering Magazine’s 2017 Chef of the Year award”, Advocate Steel said, and was ashamed to have found himself back in the dock.
Judge McKerrell said that the possession of offensive weapons simply had to be taken seriously, because they had no use other than to hurt people.
“I am surprised that the prosecution accepted this story of how you got the knuckle duster,” he said.
“What is so sad about this case is that you’re capable of doing very good things, but you are also clearly extremely foolish, because as you would know with a record like yours, only a fool would have taken possession of a knuckle duster. The possession of offensive weapons has to be discouraged.”
Judge McKerrell said Bamford would have been sent straight to prison in normal circumstances, but because of the story the prosecution had accepted, he suspended the four month prison sentence he was considering for two years.
Pictured top: Guernsey’s Court Building.