POLICE who confronted a knifeman in a Bradford street discovered he had tipped them off himself in an attempt to get arrested.

Richard Hodgson was said to be “heavily intoxicated” at the time of the incident at 1.50am on October 25, 2022.

He has now been locked up for a year.

Bradford Crown Court heard how the police received a call saying there was a man in a green tracksuit “waving a knife” on Woodside Road in Bradford.

Prosecutor David Ward said when officers went to the scene, they saw a man matching that description who threw a knife in front of them and said: “The knife’s there.”

Mr Ward said: “The police arrested him at the time not knowing that he was the one who actually called them.

Bradford Crown Court Bradford Crown Court

He was handcuffed and said he had deliberately taken the knife and called the police in order to get himself locked up.

He then became irate and racially abused both officers before threatening them, saying: “See what happens when I get these cuffs off.”

On arrival in custody there was a struggle getting Hodgson into a cell during which he kicked one of the officers.

Interviewed the next day he admitted all offences and said he had been under the influence of crack cocaine and alcohol.

Almost 18 months, on March 4, 2024, later Hodgson was among a group of people in Centenary Square in Bradford at around 9.15pm.

Hodgson was seen by police to be holding a 12-inch kitchen knife. As an officer removed it from him Hodgson became violent, there was a struggle, and he was restrained to the ground.

Once again, he was drunk.

In an interview the next day he made no comment.

He later pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a knife in a public place, two counts of racially aggravated harassment, and assault by beating of an emergency worker.

The court heard that he had a lengthy list of previous conviction including for violence, offensive weapons, dishonesty, drugs, and racially aggravated offences.

Mitigating for Hodgson, now 39, of Third Avenue, Hightown, Liversedge, Saf Salam said alcohol and illicit drug misuse “has been most prevalent” in his life and that he had struggled to get it under control.

He said: “He should not arm himself with weapons but when he’s in drink he’s not thinking about that.”

He said Hodgson took “full responsibility” for what he had done.

Sentencing Hodgson to a total of 52 weeks in prison, Assistant Judge Advocate General Thomas Mitchell said: “You routinely arm yourself when you are intoxicated for reasons that escape me, but [which] you would express as being for your own protection.

“But it’s not at all for your own protection. The simplest way for someone to find themselves stabbed to death is to arm themselves with a knife.

“You are a risk to yourself and, indeed, to the public.

“I take the view that for somebody who has committed as many offences as you have that the public would consider me to be failing in my duty if I didn’t impose a sentence of immediate imprisonment.”

He ordered the forfeiture and destruction of both knives.