Praise for officer who disarmed knife thug

Court told of shopping centre terror

A POLICE officer told how a colleague single-handedly grappled with a man carrying a knife in a shopping centre.

The cop managed to disarm the defendant in front of a crowd before back-up arrived, Derry Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

Dale Edward Walsh, 30, pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour, resisting a police officer and possessing a knife with a five-inch long blade in the Foyleside Shopping Centre last Saturday.

The self-employed labourer, from Portland Court in London, arrived in Northern Ireland last weekend to visit his grandfather who lives in Co Donegal.

The police witness told Judge Barney Mcelholm a woman in a distressed state approached an officer inside the shopping centre and said she had seen the defendant, in an intoxicated condition, holding a knife on the floor below.

The cop approached Walsh from behind and grabbed his left arm before knocking the knife from his right hand.

Walsh struggled as he tried to apply handcuffs but the officer managed to restrain him. The defendant said he’d just bought the knife, along with another four-inch-blade.

Mr Mcelholm said: “Quite what he was doing on a trip of this nature buying knives is highly suspicious.” Walsh was handed a four-month sentence suspended for two years and fined £600.

DERRY YESTERDAY