Kettering man who threatened people with a pool ball in a sock given suspended jail sentence

Colin Reynolds, aged 43, was arrested by officers after a CCTV operative saw him acting aggressively on Silver Street shortly after midnight on March 8.

Northampton Crown Court heard Reynolds was pulling members of the public and was holding a pool ball in a sock.

Dominic Woolard, prosecuting, said Reynolds struggled with the officers called out to arrest him and he landed on top of one of them.

Mr Woolard said Reynolds was asked why he had a sock only on one of his feet and he said he had a “condition with the circulation” on one foot.

However, the sock with the pool ball matched the one he was wearing.

Reynolds made “no comment” in his police interview but later pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon, resisting arrest and a public order offence.

Recorder Jacob Hallam, sentencing, said “only a custodial sentence” was appropriate but said he was going to suspend it to give Reynolds the chance to attend a rehabilitation course.

He said: “It is offences like this that make people think they cannot walk freely around town centres in Northamptonshire without the fear of violence.”

Reynolds, of London Road, Kettering, was sentenced to three months in prison for possessing the offensive weapon, six weeks for the public order offence and 21 days for resisting arrest. All the sentences will be suspended for 18 months.

Reynolds must also complete a four-month drug rehabilitation order.