A KNIFEMAN who went on the rampage and threatened to kill his baby nephew has been sectioned under the Mental Health act to protect the public from harm.
Christopher Rowe, of Blackhouse Road, Fartown, appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday facing a string of charges after he ran amok on the Town estate close to the Galpharm Stadium.
The Examiner obtained exclusive images of the dramatic moment when he was Tasered by police on September 15, 2009.
Rowe, 21, slashed one police officer in the face with a knife during the incident.
Prosecutor Henry Prosser told the court Rowe’s sister was having a party at her house at Bradley Mills when the dramatic sequence of events unfolded.
While the party was going on, Rowe’s sister heard him upstairs shouting at her one-year-old son.
She went upstairs to intervene and barricaded herself and her son in the bedroom.
But Rowe kicked a hole in the bedroom door and got in. As his sister tried to escape he punched her in the head and the face.
Other adults at the party heard the commotion and ran off and locked themselves in a car.
Rowe grabbed his baby nephew and ran outside with him, holding a knife to the child’s head.
He shouted to the terrified adults “I’ll kill him”.
At one point Rowe went back into the kitchen to get another knife – this time threatening to harm a 15-year-old boy.
By the time police arrived Rowe had let the children go, but refused to put the two knives down.
Mr Prosser told the court: “He was shouting something about his food being poisoned.”
Rowe began jumping up and down on the roof of one of the police cars with the knives still in his hands.
Officers sprayed pepper spray in his eyes causing Rowe to jump down on to the bonnet.
The police officer driving the car reversed away and Rowe fell off.
The officer then tried to run him over but missed, smashing into a lamp post and a fence.
Rowe lunged through one of the car’s open windows, slashing a police officer’s face with one of the knives.
At this point, armed police started shooting Rowe with baton rounds but Rowe continued .
He ran off down the street where he stuck the blades of the knives into the ground, but keeping his hands firmly on the handles.
He refused to let go of the knives so police officers Tasered him and he fell to the floor in a spasm and he was arrested.
When Rowe was interviewed by police later, he told them he couldn’t remember the incident and he didn’t know his sister and other family members.
He was charged with common assault, possession of a weapon, affray, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and two counts of criminal damage, which he pleaded guilty to.
He also admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply, possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply, possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate after police searched his house on March 26 last year.
Rowe told them in interview: “Santa Claus could have come down the chimney and put the drugs in the house and a burglar could have put the bullets there.”
He also pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article and failure to surrender after an incident on July 6 last year when he went out into the streets armed with two pairs of scissors.
After reading detailed medical reports from psychiatrists, Judge John Potter disposed of the case under the Mental Health Act and sent Rowe to be looked after at Newton Lodge psychiatric hospital in Wakefield.
Judge Potter said Rowe needed to be in hospital to protect himself and the public from harm.
He said: “I am just thankful there wasn’t greater harm to the defendant’s family.
“These are extremely serious matters with the potential to cause significant harm. It is a sad state of affairs.
“Mr Rowe you need to be in hospital, which you knew about after speaking to the psychiatrist. I hope that the treatment that’s given to you causes you to recover your health and in time you will be reinstated as a member of the community.
“For the time being you will remain in hospital receiving the care you clearly need.”
