Mark Gill, 44, pleaded guilty to the charge of being in possession of an offensive weapon in a public place when he appeared before Guernsey’s Magistrate court this week.
The court heard Gill had gone to the police station following an incident involving his son, and as matters progressed he was detained and his vehicle searched.
In the back of the car under a coat, officers found a large black combat knife which Gill said he had forgotten to remove from his car, and that it was part of a ‘collection’ he normally kept at home.
In sentencing Gill, Judge Cherry McMillan said that she had seen the knife and described it as a ‘thoroughly nasty piece of work.’
The court heard Gill already had a long criminal record with 67 entries on it, including drug offences and other related matters for possession of prohibited weapons.
Judge McMillan told him him that he did not have a good record and it was an aggravating feature of this case that he had been charged with a similar offence in 2017 when in possession of a stun gun. She further questioned why Gill would have a ‘collection’ of weapons like this which she said are so offensive.
Gill was sentenced to a total of six weeks in prison.