A MAN from Rhyl who was seen carrying an axe in the town has been jailed.

Lee Taylor (also known as Lee Ridler), 52, of East Parade, was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment at Caernarfon Crown Court today (August 24).

He had previously pleaded guilty, on July 31, to possession of a bladed article in public.

Taylor also admitted breaching his suspended sentence order by failing to attend a planned office appointment on June 2.

This suspended sentence was issued to him at Preston Crown Court on March 13 for two counts of assaulting an emergency worker by beating, and one charge of criminal damage.

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Prosecuting, Max Saffman told the court that, at about 11.45pm on July 29, police were made aware of an ongoing disturbance outside The Pier Hotel, on East Parade.

Officers had received a report of a male wielding an axe, and swinging it in front of people.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) footage from Sand Beach Hotel, on East Parade, showed Taylor outside its reception area holding a small woodcutter’s axe.

He could later be seen on CCTV attempting to hide the axe down the back of his trousers.

Taylor was located by officers lying on a stairwell in Sand Beach Hotel, with the axe next to him; he was arrested, and had the axe seized from him.

When interviewed by police, he made no comment.

Defending Taylor, who had 36 previous convictions for 78 offences, Duncan Bould said he had become “depressed” following the breakdown of his marriage of 35 years.

Taylor had told Mr Bould that he “never used the weapon to threaten anybody else with it”.

He had already been on remand for five months by the time he was sentenced in Preston in March, Mr Bould added.

Mr Bould said he had “made efforts, when able”, to comply with the terms of the community order imposed on him then.

Sentencing, Judge Niclas Parry said it was “quite remarkable” that Taylor only received a community order in March for criminal damage and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

He ordered that the axe be forfeited and destroyed, while Taylor while pay a statutory surcharge within three months of his release from prison.