A KNIFEMAN was given a verbal dressing down by the judge who sent him down for a year-and-a-half.

Daniel Webdell, 33, was jailed for 17 months at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday for two charges of knife possession, including one charge relating to a brawl in Tadpole Garden Village in September during which he was seen with the blade.

Sending the Rodbourne man to prison, Judge Roderick Henderson told him: “The danger of people carrying around weapons, particularly in confrontation situations is that somebody loses their control, somebody ends up very seriously injured or dead and the person in your position ends up serving very many years in custody.”

Webdell was one of four people arrested in the wake of a fight in Eglantyne Avenue, Tadpole Garden Village, at around 8.30am on Sunday, September 13 last year. Around five people were said to have been involved in the brawl.

Birmingham Crown Court

At the time, Insp Dave Tippetts of Wiltshire Police said in an appeal for witnesses: “No doubt local residents will be concerned to hear of incidents of this nature taking place in their neighbourhood on a Sunday morning.”

Webdell, of Groves Street, Rodbourne, had earlier pleaded guilty to possession of a knife in Swindon on September 13. He also admitted being in possession of a knife in Sandwell, near Birmingham, in June last year.

Mitigating, Mark Sharman told the Birmingham court on Tuesday his client recognised that he had been “mixing with others who are not good for him”. He was keen to get a job upon his release and had completed maths and English courses while on remand.

While in prison he had been unable to see his eight-year-old daughter. He was kept on lockdown for 23 hours a day as a result of prison covid restrictions and had caught coronavirus at HMP Bullingdon.

Webdell had two previous convictions for weapons offences. In 2016, he was jailed for two years and eight months for burglary with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after DNA linked him to an attempt by a gang to force their way into a Park North flat. A Taser was found at the scene.