We wanted to highlight a recent court result to you.

A 57 year-old man has been jailed for a year and eight months after he admitted two separate offences including possessing a knife in a public place and using a knife during a fight in Portsmouth.

In the early hours of Sunday 16 June 2024 we received a report of people fighting and that there was a knife involved on Victoria Street. Officers attended, but the group had left. Further enquiries showed that no-one was hurt. After CCTV of the area was viewed Neil Gary Braithwaite of no fixed address was identified as the man carrying a knife. On Friday 19 July officers from Portsmouth’s Priority Crime Team who had been trying to locate Braithwaite spotted him on Fratton Road. As they went to arrest him he dropped an object over a wall, that was later identified to be a kitchen knife.

Braithwaite was later charged and admitted two offences of possession of a knife in a public place at Portsmouth Crown Court today (Tuesday 7 January), where he was immediately sentenced to a total of 20 months in prison.

Officer in the case, PC Tony Percival said: “This sentence sends a clear message that we will not tolerate knife-related or violent crime in Portsmouth. We work tirelessly to keep our communities safe and will relentlessly pursue those people that we believe to be carrying knives as weapons in the city. 

“A key focus of our work is prevention and working with individuals to divert them away from violence and carrying knives. There are permanent knife surrender bins at the Eastern Police Investigation Centre and Portsmouth Central Police Station. Thankfully in this case no-one was seriously hurt and we have secured an outcome where a regular knife-carrier is no longer on our streets”.