Rugby pensioner brandished a saw as he ranted in the street - months after serving a prison sentence for swiping out with a machete

A Rugby pensioner brandished a saw as he ranted in the street in the early hours of the morning just months after serving a prison sentence for swiping out with a machete.

And a judge at Warwick Crown Court warned Lloyd Linton that he was entitled to lead his life without any regard for anyone else – ‘but it has consequences.’

Linton (76) of Parnell Close, Rugby, was jailed for five months after pleading guilty to possessing a bladed article in public.

Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said that on July 29 last year a man was woken at three in the morning by shouting outside his home in Tom Brown Street, Rugby.

He looked out and saw Linton shouting in the street with a bottle of alcohol in one hand and brandishing a saw in the other, so he called the police.

Officers arrived, and when they told Linton to put the saw down, he complied.

Linton said he had received a phone call from his son saying that his ex-partner, his son’s mother, had passed away – and he had taken the saw so he could do some work the following morning.

Mr Simpson added that Linton had a number of convictions in recent years for being drunk and disorderly, as well as three for carrying bladed articles.

The last of those had led to him being jailed in December 2019 for 146 days – the minimum sentence he could be given of six months, reduced by 20 per cent for his guilty plea on that occasion.

Rachel Pennington, defending, said: “He would like me to express his remorse.”

And she pointed out that since being remanded in custody, Linton had contracted Covid-19 in prison ‘and has lost three family members while inside.’

Judge Anthony Potter indicated: “It seems to me the time he has served is sufficient to mark the seriousness of this offence. He has been on remand in onerous conditions because of the pandemic.”

Sentencing Linton, Judge Potter told him: “The court has to sentence you once again for carrying a weapon in public. You were waving a saw around in the street.

“You are 76 years of age. You are certainly more than old enough to know better.

“You have conducted your life without any regard for anyone else. You are entitled to do so, but it has consequences.”

Linton’s sentence in 2019 had followed an incident earlier that year when a CCTV operator noticed him with something in a carrier bag in Railway Terrace.

He was walking unsteadily along the road making ‘chopping and swiping motions’ with the bag, which the camera operator could see contained a metal item, so called the police.

As the operator continued to track his movements, Linton, who was clearly intoxicated, sat on a wall where a number of people walked past him, including a woman with a baby in a pram.

He then got up and carried on weaving along the road, swinging the bag around, as he made his way to Regent Place, where the police arrested him and found the bag contained a machete.