A MAN who brandished a kitchen knife at friends and police insisted his drink had been spiked, a court was told.

David Maher, 38, of Brunswick Road, Buckley, was celebrating his birthday at the Potter’s Wheel pub in the town on March 22 where he claimed his drink was laced with drugs.

When friends found Maher roaming the streets the following evening he said he was too scared to enter his flat.

He slept on a friend’s couch but woke them in the early hours “screaming like a child” and brandishing a knife.

A statement read to Flintshire Magistrates’ Court from Caroline Jones, who took Maher into her home on Moorfields, Buckley, said: “David said he didn’t want to go into his flat on his own. I felt sorry for him and said he could come and stay on our sofa until he calmed down.

“He wasn’t making much sense. In the early hours we heard shouting and he was saying ‘I can’t go home. They’re after me. They’re gonna kill me’.

“He had a knife in his hands.”

The Mold court was told Maher had drunk about seven pints and some spirits at the pub.

Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, said: “This man was fearful for his own safety but he refused to drop the knife and that would cause some concern for all in the property.

“He was screaming like a child when he was apprehended by police. This is not his normal behaviour and I must stress he did not threaten his friends or police with the knife.”

Maher, who had suffered with depression in the past, called the police himself.
When he refused to drop the knife, officers prepared to use a tazer gun on him but Maher dropped the knife when he spotted a red laser beam on his chest.

Maher pleaded guilty to affray and using unlawful violence towards another person that would cause the person to fear for their personal safety yesterday. He will be sentenced at Mold Crown Court on May 20.