2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Martin Naylor)
A 29-year-old Nottingham man threatened a complete stranger with a knife after overhearing the victim make a comment about him and his friends inside a petrol station. Nottingham Crown Court heard how Kingsley Grant-Buckingham followed the man, pulled out the folding blade and “jabbed it towards his face”. At the time, the defendant, of Hyson Green , had been drinking while commemorating the death of his brother, who had been killed 12 years earlier.
Now, after serving the equivalent of a nine month sentence on prison remand, he has been “given a chance” by a judge. Handing the defendant an 18-month community order, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: “Anything could have happened, that is the risk you take and that is why the courts say it over and over again that if you carry knives you risk committing something more serious. “Far too many people are doing it and what happened to your brother you, more than anyone else, should realise that.
On the day you committed the offence, 12 years before, your brother had been killed. “I don’t know how he met his death but it was violent and possibly involved a weapon. So why you were carrying a weapon, particularly on this day of mourning, is a mystery.
He said something you took offence to and it seems that lit the blue touch paper. “You said it was a work knife, something you used to cut wires. But it was a folding knife so you must have opened it so you were not so drunk you did not know what you were doing.
“What happened should not have happened.” David Eager, prosecuting, said the offence took place outside a Jet garage in Nottingham, at around 9,45p on July 18, this year. He said Grant-Buckingham and his friends were inside making noises and shouting and the victim entered, paid for something and said to the cashier “good luck with that one”.
The prosecutor said: “The defendant must have heard that and taken offence so he followed him out to where the victim’s Uber was waiting, kicked him and then threatened him with the knife, jabbing it towards his face and putting him in fear. “He (the victim) apologised even though he had not done anything to have to apologise for.” Mr Eager said the defendant was arrested at his home address and was taken to a police station.
He said a bag which was seized had the weapon in it and the day after, in interview, Grant-Buckingham of Birkin Avenue, refused to answer any of the questions put to him. He later pleaded guilty to threatening another with a bladed article and common assault and has 23 previous convictions for 35 offences. In 2018, he was jailed for 23 weeks for threatening revellers in Upper Parliament Street with his belt.
Digby Johnson, mitigating, said his client had been on remand for four-and-half months and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. As part of the order, the judge told the defendant he must attend 25 rehabilitation sessions with the probation service and an accredited programme..
