MADCAP Huddersfield eccentric Jake Mangel Wurzel has escaped a prison sentence for brandishing a knife at a group of boys.
MangelWurzel, 69, appearing in court as Thomas Henry Erasmus Occupier, was given a conditional discharge by a judge in Preston.
He broke down in tears after being handed the sentence at the city’s Crown Court.
The court heard Mangel Wurzel of Peace Pond, Salendine Nook, lost his rag during a camping trip with a friend in Ullverston, the birth place of Stan Laurel in July last year.
Ian Dacre mitigating said: “They had been dogged by a group of young boys playing football for the last two days.
“It was the culmination of annoyances.
“He lost his temper, picked up a knife he had been using to tether his dogs, brandished it in the air, and shouted “I will stab that ball”.
“He accepts that in behaving in that way he might have frightened those young lads.”
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