‘I’m going to chop you up’, axeman told police officer
A POLICE officer was left in fear of their life as a man wielding an axe threatened to chop them up during a drunken rampage.
Officers attended Danny McKenna’s house to arrest him for a previous offence on June 5, but after knocking on the door of the property they were met with McKenna standing in just his shorts with the axe.
Derby Crown Court heard how McKenna, 28, was “enraged” and repeatedly told police “I’m going to ******* chop you up”, but was resistant to incapacitant spray.
The stand-off lasted for more than half an hour after McKenna, of Bass Street, Derby, locked himself inside his home and punched a window.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to one count of affray in June.
Sentencing him, Judge Robert Egbuna said: “I do believe there was intention to cause fear or very serious violence.
“You targeted people who were public servants. It is aggravated by the fact that you committed the offence while under the influence of alcohol. You can’t threaten police officers the way that you have done with your antecedent history and having committed the offence while on licence.”
McKenna has previously been in prison for attacking his stepfather with a bread knife when he refused to buy him alcohol, and was jailed for 20 months in October 2019. He was on licence for that offence at the time of his offending in June.
Sarah Slater, prosecuting, said McKenna was approached by police in connection with a burglary, a charge which was later dropped.
After the stand-off with the axe and locking himself in his house, he shouted at police “I will get a gun and will find them”, which one police officer said in a statement read out in court made them feel that McKenna “posed a direct threat to me or that he was going to kill me with the axe”.
After negotiating with officers, he later shouted, “I’m going to have a beer and a cigarette and then I might come out”.
McKenna, who appeared via video link from HMP Nottingham, where he has been remanded in custody since June, also has previous convictions for criminal damage, harassment and threatening behaviour.
Laura Pitman, defending, told the court that McKenna was taken by surprise by the police’s arrival and that some time had already effectively been served through him being remanded in custody.
She said: “He had no idea that police would be attending at his home address. He had been drinking to excess because he was struggling to deal with the passing of his mother. “I understand she passed away earlier on this year, on April 5, when he was in custody, so he was not able to be with his mother in her last days. “He did not anticipate anyone coming to his house that day. He is bitterly ashamed by how he conducted himself. On hearing the threats that he made he was deeply ashamed.
“Despite the fact he was brandishing the weapon, there was never an attempt by him to attack those police officers.”