Teenager spared jail after knife charge guilty plea

A teenager, armed with a knife, pursued a former partner from her flat and grabbed her hair in the street because he was heartbroken at the break up of their relationship.Exeter Crown Court heard 19-year-old Jack Page was in the girl's flat in Exmouth, lying on the bed with a knife beside him when she came home with another man.Prosecutor Dave Bowen said she left the flat with that man and they were chased by Page. They separated and both called the police but, before they arrived, Page had caught the girl and grabbed her by the hair.Officers found blood on her T-shirt but it belonged to Page and she was not injured in any way.By the time police located Page, he had slashed his wrists and was using a towel to staunch the blood flow.When he was interviewed, Page accepted that the girl must have been frightened and he could not account for why he had taken the knife with him.Mitigating, Sarah Hornblower said, Page was shocked and devastated by the ending of the relationship and had stupidly turned to alcohol. This incident had seen a further deterioration in his mental state and he had previously tried to hang himself from a tree in a park. He had made other suicide attempts and was a vulnerable young man.Page, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon, battery and a public order offence.He was given a 12 months sentence suspended for 18 months, with 18 months supervision and 180 hours unpaid work in the community.Passing sentence, Judge Philip Wassall told Page: "Following the break up of the relationship, you went back to the flat and after she had come back and left, you followed her, armed with the knife. But I accept you had no intention of using it and in fact slashed your own wrists with it. You are emotionally immature but there is time to resolve that, if you are given support. Those who carry knives must expect custody but in this case I am going to suspend that term.