A killer clown is now going to jail for terrorising a pregnant woman the night before Halloween last year. The 18-year-old prankster chased her with an axe, much to the horror of the victim.

Michael March admitted that he had been “foolish and reckless.” He has realised that his stunt “must have been a frightening incident” for the expectant woman, who was 22 weeks pregnant. But now March is apparently going to be the first “killer clown” in the UK to be incarcerated amid the clown craze that has swept the world in the last few months.

The victim was strolling with her partner when March walked past them and banged his foot-long weapon on the ground and began chasing. The woman defended herself by throwing a brick at March. The killer clown fled the scene after that.

Judge Jamie Hill QC sentenced March to six months in jail. The judge said that wielding an axe and terrorising people in the street is a grave offence whatever the context, so a custodial sentence was only fitting. “The fact you were wearing a clown mask is an aggravating factor because it increased the fear they would have experienced and secondly it was a way of disguising who you were,” said Hill.

Prosecutor Nicholas Rooke told the Newcastle Crown Court that March was tracked down through CCTV footages after the authorities were called. They found the prankster carrying a knapsack that had the axe and the clown mask.

“He claimed it was a prank, saying he had himself been chased by killer clowns in Gateshead and he thought he would scare people as part of a prank,” said Rooke. The pregnant victim hasn’t provided a statement as “she did not want the stress of court to affect her any further.”

According to Metro, March had previously confessed to owning a bladed object. The killer clown’s attorney, Vic Laffey, said March had no previous convictions. Laffey tried to persuade the judge that March should have eluded prison since the prankster was 17 years old at the time of the offence.

“When he was apprehended, his first words were ‘I was not going to hurt anyone,’” said Laffey. “This was a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong.”

A week after Halloween last year, another killer clown physically harmed a woman from Robinhood Street, Gloucestershire at the victim’s own home. The attacker was able to insert a knife through the letterbox hole of her door and pierce her leg.

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