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Man jailed after
knife threat at
shopping centre
Marcus Hughes
Reporter
marcus.hughes@walesonline.co.uk
A MAN who threatened a shopper
with a “military-style” flick knife
pointed the blade at a police officer
before being wrestled to the ground.
Zain Shahzad was tackled by plain-
clothes police officers as he confronted
another man in a packed St David’s
shopping centre in Cardiff.
The 21-year-old was seen holding a
flick knife with an exposed blade on
March 5 when the officers, who were
working on another operation, wres-
tled Shahzad to the floor and he was
arrested.
Last month he pleaded guilty at Car-
diff Magistrates’ Court to one count of
possessing an offensive weapon,
namely a flick knife, in a public place.
Prosecutor Chris Evans outlined the
facts of the case at a sentencing hearing
at Newport Crown Court yesterday.
Mr Evans said South Wales Police
officers PC Neil Burt and PC Kelly Cas-
well were on patrol on another opera-
tion at St David’s on the day of the
offence.
“PC Caswell’s attention was drawn
to Mr Shahzad acting in a strange
manner, squaring up to a man and
shouting: ‘Come on, let’s go outside
and I will f*** you up.’”
He said PC Caswell approached him
and put her hands on the defendant’s
shoulders.
“She noticed that he was carrying a
knife with the blade pointed towards
her.”
Mr Evans said the two restrained
Shahzad and called for assistance
from other police officers nearby.
He was then “taken to the floor” and
arrested. Officers recovered the blade
at the scene. The court was shown
CCTV footage of the incident.
Mr Evans said: “There is a brief
moment when you can see [the knife]
but it is quite fast-moving. It is open
but it is a flick knife.”
He added: “The officer states there
SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2018  south wales echo  13
News
Zain Shahzad has been jailed for possessing a military-style
flick knife, left, at St David’s shopping centre in Cardiff
were children present and you can see of this incident, there were children.
that from the footage.” “It is clear from the CCTV coverage
Recorder Peter Rouch QC accepted that a young couple doing nothing
Shahzad had pleaded guilty at the ear- walked past you and you called them
liest opportunity and had no previous and you started threatening the man.
convictions. “It is fortunate there were police
“Knife crime is growing, everyone officers there to be able to be able to
knows that,” Judge Rouch said. “We restrain and detain you.”
see it daily reported in the media and it Judge Rouch jailed Shahzad for
is becoming a problem in most major eight months. He said he would serve
cities. half of the sentence in prison before
“There were people there at the time being released on licence.