Man caught carrying Samurai sword at 4am near Hartlepool McDonald's jailed at Teesside Crown Court

Paul Lyall, 27, who was described in court as a paranoid scizophrenic, was stopped and searched by police near McDonald’s, in Marina Way, just after 4am on January 3 this year.

Officers asked him if he had anything on him that he should not, and Teesside Crown Court heard he replied: “Yes, I’ve got a knife because I’ve got people after me.”

He was cuffed and during the search police recovered a black Samurai sword from the inside of his jacket.

It was said Lyall, who was living in Hartlepool at the time but who is from Lincolnshire, had it for protection after he had his kneecaps smashed with a cricket bat by people he owed a drug debt to.

He pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place at an earlier hearing in the magistrates court.

Nicci Horton, mitigating, said: “It was an incredibly stupid thing to do.”

She said Lyall, now of Eastoft, near Scunthorpe, was walking his dog to clear his head and the sword was not used against anyone.

But he was jailed for six months as the judge said the courts needed to send out a message to the public on knife crime.

He also had a similar previous conviction and offences involving violence on his record.

Judge Roger Thomas said: “It’s a nasty looking weapon. It’s necessary for the message to be sent out if people choose to arm themselves with bladed articles they will go to prison.

"In this day and age knife crime is a huge problem.”