A man is back behind bars after he was spotted walking through a town centre with large machete in his pocket just days after his release from prison.

Lee Booth maintained he had picked up the machete when he left a ‘crack house’ because he feared for his safety after he was blamed for some things going missing.

The 39-year-old was spotted walking along Yarm Lane, Stockton, just after 11pm on May 19 by a member of the public and CCTV footage showed him walk across to a police van when they arrived at the scene.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said the blade could clearly be seen in the defendant’s rear pocket as he walked through the streets.

She said: “He had been at a property, which he declined to give any details about, it was a crack cocaine house and he felt he was being blamed for some of the drugs going missing.

“He said he was carrying it for his own protection.”

The court heard how Booth had 135 previous convictions and had only been released from London’s Wandsworth Prison a few days earlier.

Booth, of Parliament Walk, Stockton, pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court the day after his arrest.

Kate Clarke, mitigating, said: “He seems to have fallen into his old ways pretty quickly because that’s the only way he knows.

“They (people in the crack house) seem to allege he has done something; he picks up the machete, fearful that they were going to use it on him.

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“He told officer he was carrying it for his own safety.”

Judge Richard Bennett told the defendant that custody was unavoidable in the circumstances but accepted that he appeared to be concerned about someone following him at the time of his arrest.

He said: “Having watched the CCTV footage it is clear that you were repeatedly looking behind you, concerned with the threat coming from those you had been spending time with taking drugs.

Sentencing Booth to six months in prison, the judge added: “Those who carry knives in public must expect, when they come to court, to go to prison immediately.”