Man jailed after knife threat over prescription

A FILTON man who was declined a drugs prescription told a health centre receptionist: “You will need to call armed police here in a bit.”

Stefan Poyster was seen to have a blade when he waited at a hatch window to speak to staff at the Homeless Health Service in Jamaica Street.

When told his methadone script would be sent to his allocated pharmacy he made the threat and left. Police found him in a nearby park, and a knife nearby.

Poyster, 34, of Seventh Avenue, pleaded guilty to possessing a blade. He appeared for sentence at Bristol Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Mark Horton jailed him for eight months and told him to pay a £156 victim surcharge. He told Poyster: “In carrying a knife as you do the clear inference is you represent a danger to the public.”

Robert Yates, prosecuting, said Poyster was seen to have a knife in his trouser waistband. When a woman told him to hide the blade he moved it to his right trouser pocket, the court heard.

After Poyster made the threat that the centre would need to call armed police, police called in found him in nearby King Square park. Mr Yates said Poyster was then seen to return the blade from his trouser pocket to his waistband.

Mr Yates told the court: “Police arrived and the defendant crouched down and threw the knife away. Police found the knife nearby.”

The court heard Poyster had three previous knife-related convictions among offences including threatening with a blade, assaulting an emergency worker and thefts from shops. Emily Heggadon, defending, described her client’s mental health at the time as “precarious” and the incident followed him being sectioned under the Mental Health Act after he self-harmed.