A COURT heard a heartbreaking account of a Carlisle dad who has spent weeks in jail after police caught him carrying a knife because he planned to kill himself.

Richard Keith Ballantyne, 42, whose lawyer said he was a loving father and once a hard-working man, was arrested on May 6 after police found him in the city’s English Street with a Stanley knife. He said that he had the knife because he wanted to commit suicide.

At an earlier hearing, Ballantyne, who at the time of his offence lived at the city’s John Street Hostel for homeless men, admitted possessing a bladed article in a public place without good reason.

Prosecutor Paul Brookwell outlined how police were called to English Street at 3.40pm because passers by had seen him inhaling fumes from a can of lighter fuel.

“He was unsteady on his feet,” said the barrister, and at the time an empty gas can or cylinder and an empty bottle of vodka were found in his possession.

“He had his property with him, which included a sleeping bag and he also had within his bag a Stanley knife.”

Ballantyne’s wrists had sustained superficial cuts, said the barrister.

The defendant had only four previous offences on his record – a drunk and disorderly, drink-driving, breach of a restraining order, and criminal damage when he threw a kettle bell through the window of his wife’s car.

Mark Shepherd, for Ballantyne, said that since being arrested, the defendant had been in prison.

While there, because of coronavirus restrictions, he has had to spend 23.5 hours per day in his cell.

The lawyer said that in custody there was no support for Ballantyne’s alcohol or mental health issues.

He told the judge: “This was a man who was in a persistent suicidal state and expressing suicidal thoughts.

“He had purchased a knife from the B&M store with the intention of killing himself. Yet he is someone who has previously been a hard-working and loving father.

“Sadly, things have gone wrong for him over the last two or three years.”

Mr Shepherd said a community sentence was better than allowing Ballantyne to languish in jail.

The lawyer asked whether the courts should be incarcerating people because they want to kill themselves.

Recorder Tom Gilbart told Ballantyne: “This is in any view an extremely sad case. You have been a hard-working father, providing for your family, and living a productive life in the past.

“You are now beset by mental health issues and you are of no fixed abode.”

But there were good reasons why six months’ jail was the starting point for knife-carrying, he said. “They are dangerous and frightening things that bring with them a very real risk of the escalation of incidents.” Yet the defendant’s history persuaded him to impose an 18-month community order, with 30 hours of rehabilitation activity.