Jail for man who wielded Samurai sword and sought suicide by cop

Lee Sanaghan, 39, went berserk with a Samurai sword in the street outside his home and smashed the window of a police van before he was surrounded by a gun response unit.

He had to be stunned with a Taser by specially trained officers before he would surrender his weapon and on being arrested apparently told an officer: “Just kill me, mate.”

His barrister, Michael Slater, told Sheffield Crown Court: “He accepts he was hoping the police would shoot him and kill him.

“He is grateful for their professionalism, their expertise and in particular their restraint that they did not do so.

“He recognises he could have had no qualms had they done so in the circumstances. But it was short-lived and they were able to detain him.”

Former scrapyard worker Sanaghan, was enraged after his daughter who lived nearby, told him her children aged one, two and five had to contend with drug addicts’ used syringes being tossed over the fence into the garden where they played.

Enraged, Sanaghan stormed round with a baseball bat and jumped onto the bonnet of a car belonging to Gary Neill whom he held responsible and began hitting his vehicle, said David Wain, prosecuting.

Sanaghan left the scene and returned to his home in Coleridge Road, Eastwood, Rotherham. What happened after that is unclear but police were called and firearms officers attended to find him in the middle of the road wielding a Samurai sword and shouting: “Come on, kill me.”

Sanaghan admitted possessing an offensive weapon, affray and two offences of criminal damage on the afternoon of January 28 this year. He was jailed for a total of 14 months.

Judge Jeremy Baker told Sanaghan he recognised he had a grievance but he should not have acted on it in the way he did.

He went on: “The possession of such a weapon in public gives rise at the very least to a significant risk of serious injury. Fortunately that did not occur on this occasion.”

The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the sword.