Homeless man who brandished knives at park teenagers jailed

Andrew Gill, 30, picked on the four boys and five girls in Sheffield’s Endcliffe Park late one evening at the end of last month because he thought they were laughing at him, the city’s crown court was told.

Gill, who had just been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for robbery, pulled a large knife from his right sleeve and pointed the blade towards the group, who were all aged about 17.

Louise Gallagher, prosecuting, said he then produced a smaller knife from his left sleeve and with a blade in each hand he taunted the teenagers, waving the knives and telling them: “You can either have this or this.”

The court was told that the group hurried away from the scene of the incident saying they wanted no trouble but were pursued by Gill, who shouted: “If you have a problem I will break every bone in your body except ther girls. I won’t touch the girls.”

Gill, who was still holding the knives, then turned on a 17-year-old boy who was in the group and punched him on the top of his right arm and pushed him backwards.

The teenagers escaped and thought they had shook Gill off but he jumped a fence and followed them for another 100 yards until a girl dashed into a restuarant and called the police.

When arrested Gill was found to have a holdall containing a bread knife, a kitchen knife, a Stanley knife and a metal bar.

Miss Gallagher said he believed the teenagers had been making comments about him and his friend who had both been living rough in the park on the edge of Sheffield city centre.

She said he had drunk two or three litres of strong cider and four cans of lager that day and as a result he was not in control of his senses.

When he was arrested and his possessions were searched Gill said he only had the knives to prepare food.

Gill, of no fixed address, was convicted of having a bladed article in a public place, carrying offensive weapons and threatening behaviour by Sheffield magistrates earlier this year and appeared at Sheffield Crown Court to be sentenced.

The court was told that he had a long criminal record stretching back a number of years with offences which included possessing a metal bar in 2006 and possessing an imitation firearm and lock knife in October, 2007.

The court was told that Gill had only just been released from the three-year sentence for robbery when he confronted the teenagers as they walked through the park on Saturday, September 3 at 11.30pm.

Richard Jepson, representing Gill, said he was homeless on his release from jail and had been living in the park with a friend who was his “only link to the rest of the world.”

He had thought the teenagers were laughing at the position the pair found themselves in and had become offended by what he believed they were saying.

“The weapons were almost the sum total of his worldly possessions, everything he owned was in the bag,” Mr Jepson told the court.

The barrister said Gill drank heavily to avoid “plunging back into the abyss” of drug addiction but was intelligent and had the wherewithal to make something of himself.

Jailing him for 12 months, Miss Recorder Sophie Drake told Gill the boy he threatened “thought he was going to be stabbed and was very scared and felt very distressed.”

She told Gill: “Your situation seems pretty hopeless at the minute. The help you have been offered you have not taken up.”

The judge told him he was unpredictable when in drink and his previous record aggravated the incident.