Bipolar man jailed for carrying two blades in Kendal (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Bipolar man jailed for carrying two blades in Kendal

12:20pm Thursday 22nd April 2010 in News

A JUDGE admitted he was powerless to help a mentally-ill homeless man he sent to prison for carrying weapons in Kendal.

Jeffrey Hayton, 44, was jailed, at Carlisle Crown Court, for a year after pleading guilty to carrying two bladed articles – a pair of scissors and an axe – in public.

But, because of the time he had already spent in prison on remand, the sentence means he could be released next month, the court heard.

Mr Grice said a custodial sentence was inevitable since, because of his mental state, Hayton was not fit for any kind of community sentence.

But he said: “One fears what is going to happen when he is released from prison.”

Prosecuting, Rachel Cooper said Hayton, who used to live in Calder Drive, Kendal, but had been “drifting from friend to friend, carrying all his worldly possessions in a rucksack on his back”, had been arrested three times in Kendal in less than a month – always by the same woman police officer.

On October 9 he was found with a knife, on October 11 with scissors and on November 4 with an axe, she said.

The charge in relation to the knife was left on file, but Hayton – who had 132 previous convictions, including those for carrying chisels and knives – admitted the others.

He told police he had found the scissors near the Brewery Arts Centre and picked them up, though he did not know what he was going to do with them, Ms Cooper said.

And he said he had been given the axe by a friend, and was planning to help chop up logs for that friend’s elderly relative, she said.

In mitigation, Gareth James said Hayton suffered depression and bipolar disorder, and had in the past refused to take medication due to “unfortunate side affects”.

He was now taking a new anti-psychotic drug which seemed to be working, he said.

Mr James said there was no suggestion Hayton had brandished the weapons or had intended to use them against anyone, although he accepted that they might have caused trouble if anyone else had found them on him.

Judge Recorder Kevin Grice said: “He needs help and support but there is nothing I can do to ensure he gets it.

"It is not possible to have any control over what happens to him.

"I hope something can be done for you when you are released because you clearly need help.”

The court heard that on his release the prison authorities should work with the probation service to find Hayton supported accommodation.