A CARLISLE man attempting to help his friends became involved in a violent disturbance during which two people were allegedly stabbed, a court heard. 

Andrew Hamilton, 46, told magistrates that he would not make the same mistake again after he was later charged with – and pleaded guilty to – an offence of using threatening words and behaviour.

At the city’s Rickergate court, prosecutor Pam Ward said the incident came to light after police were called to a house in Henderson Road, Currock, in the early hours of Saturday, June 18, following reports of a violent disturbance.

Two people at the address later told police that they had been stabbed in an altercation, but prosecutors accepted that Hamilton played a “lesser role” in the disturbance and did not assault anybody.

The trouble had flared up in the garden of the property, the court heard. Police arrived at the house and saw a silver-coloured car making off from the area.

It was alleged that one of the men involved was seen picking up a paving slab, while a witness also reported Hamilton issuing threats and picking up plant pot.

Jeff Smith, defending, said Hamilton had gone to the house where the trouble flared up with a friend and witnessed a “significant disturbance going on.”

Mr Smith said: “He tells me that he became involved in an attempt to break up the fight but his behaviour became unlawfully threatening.”

A probation officer who interviewed Hamilton, who lives at Henderson Road, said his had reported meeting up with his friends for a few drinks and then trying to intervene when the disturbance got out of hand. 

The officer added: “He said that if that situation ever happened again, he would not get involved; he would step back and walk away.”

The court heard that Hamilton had not been before a court for eight years and his last public order offence was in 2003, so there was no pattern of offending. The probation officer added: “He had been drinking on that evening but normally he can’t drink because of the medication he is on.

“He ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to help his friends.” Magistrates noted the defendant’s mental health conditions, saying that being in the middle of such a situation was not the sort of place he needed to be in.

They fined Hamilton £200, and imposed £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.