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A man has been jailed after being found by police walking around at midnight with a meat cleaver down his trousers.

Police were called to the Abbey Lane area of Leicester shortly before midnight on April 21 after members of the public said they had seen a man with a weapon.

Cecil Pike told them he had been attacked by an “Oriental gang” and was heading to Melton Road to find them and “cut them up”.

When the 50-year-old was arrested he had the meat cleaver down his trousers and the knife in his pocket.

He later pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a bladed article.

Pike, of Jersey Road, Mowmacre Hill, Leicester, was sentenced to 34 weeks in prison at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday, where Judge Nicholas Dean heard that Pike had mental health issues and had recently walked into HMP Leicester in Welford Road with two knives and asked to be locked up.

However, after that incident he was sentenced by magistrates to a suspended prison sentence on March 26, about four weeks before he was arrested in Abbey Lane.

Describing his latest arrest, prosecutor Philip Gibbs said: “He complied with the directions and handed the cleaver to the police.

"He told officers he had a second knife in one of his pockets.

(Image: Google)

“The defendant then said something of concern.

"He said he was pleased the officers had stopped him as he was going to do something stupid.

“He said he had been attacked on Melton Road by an ‘Oriental gang’ and was intending to return there to ‘cut them up’.”

Mr Gibbs said Pike had an “appalling” record of numerous previous convictions for carrying weapons dating back to 1986 but had never received anything more than a suspended sentence.

Michelle Harding, representing Pike, said her client had suffered mental problems since he was 19, when he was stabbed and then thrown from a moving vehicle, causing him head injuries.

She said: “He spent a length of time in hospital and started suffering with his mental health.

"It wasn’t helped he was using cannabis and class A drugs.

“His record is appalling and I have to concede that.”

Because of the time he has already spent in custody and the fact he only has to spend half his sentence in custody, Pike will be released in about 12 weeks.

The judge said: “It may well be you continue to re-offend because of you mental health but the fact that you do re-offend gives the court no choice.

“You seem to have an obsession with carrying knives and sometimes other weapons.

“It may be that was a sort of cry for help, going into Welford Road.

"You were given a suspended sentence and breached it very quickly.”