A Bradford man has been jailed for 12 weeks, suspended for a year, after being found with an axe outside Keighley railway station.

Paul Collins, 39, was sentenced at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court last Thursday after being found guilty of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place following a trial at the same court on April 9.

Prosecutor, Linda Fowler, told the court officers from West Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police had been called to the station on the afternoon of October 16 last year, after reports of a man in a camouflage jacket brandishing some sort of “large metallic object”, and another man with some form of head injury.

She added a member of staff from the station said they had seen the man in front of the building, holding what appeared to be a hammer or an axe above his head and “waving it around”, causing concern to members of the public.

After police arrived, a 30cm axe was recovered from the back pocket of the man’s trousers.

In mitigation, Victoria Molloy told the court Collins, of Brecks Road in Clayton, was a self-employed plasterer who had been using the axe as part of work to renovate a house in the area.

She added he admitted possessing the implement, which she said police had confirmed was covered in plaster dust, but denied wielding it above his head or using the weapon to “cause fear or threaten anybody”.

Miss Molloy also stated Collins knew the injured man, who was said to be drunk, and was in the process of bending over to pick him up and help him into a taxi when a member of the public saw the axe in his back pocket and raised the alarm.

Alongside a custodial sentence, chairman of the bench, Ros Seton, imposed a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and prosecution costs totalling £480.

She also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the axe.