Judge Peter Benson slams handling of Daniel Kelly's machete attack court case

Jan 28 2010 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A JUDGE has labelled the police handling of a man carrying a Samurai sword as “sheer incompetence”.

The outburst came in the trial of 23-year-old Almondbury man Daniel Kelly who was prosecuted after being stopped carrying an ornamental Samurai sword hidden down his trousers.

Judge Peter Benson was told police had destroyed the sword without a court order and without taking photographic evidence of it.

They also failed to take action against a man with Kelly on Manchester Road who was allegedly carrying a machete.

Judge Benson had adjourned Kelly’s sentence hearing until yesterday so that he could get more information about the case and the sword which Kelly, of Tinderley Grove, Almondbury, admitted carrying.

But prosecutor Louise Azmi told Bradford Crown Court that the sword, which had a 20-inch blade, had been destroyed since the incident last May and no photographs had been taken of it.

After Kelly’s arrest, he said he had been taking the sword to somebody for it to be cleaned.

Kelly’s lawyer had previously indicated that the sword was well-wrapped up at the time he was stopped, but there was no information about that to put before the judge.