Just two days after three men were convicted for the most serious crimes committed in the 2004 Wellington Oval riot, a man was sentenced to three years in prison under new bladed weapons laws drafted over the past year.

Prosecutors confirmed Jerimiah Nicholas Burrows is the first man to be imprisoned under hard-hitting anti-machete laws approved by Parliament this summer.

Ministers bolstered the sentencing power of courts in a bid to curb the rising number of violent assaults involving machetes and other bladed weapons on the Island ? a spate of violence which reached its nadir in front of hundreds at last year?s Frendship Trophy finals.

Burrows, handed the hefty and historic sentence at Magistrates? Court yesterday, did not use a machete to injure anybody.

But because the Pembroke resident was caught October 12 illegally carrying the blade on the streets on he was punished under the new law ? under which three years? jail is the minimum punishment. The maximum is five.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said the sentence should serve as a warning that who unlawfully carries sharp weapons in Bermuda will not be tolerated. The legal changes were passed to ?meet the prevailing criminal climate?, the Senior Magistrate added.

He told Burrows: ?You and all of Bermuda should be aware of this draconian law which has been passed.?

He said he made ?no apology? for calling it draconian and said the aim was clear ? to stop people carrying machetes and using weapons to threaten people.

?All those who have ears, let them hear,? the Senior Magistrate told the court.

Crown counsel Graveney Bannister said Burrows was caught at 12.45 a.m. on Court Street after Police had been following up a report of a four-man fight outside Dub City, but when they arrived they found no sign of trouble.

They did see the defendant walking towards Arabian Chicken with a machete in his hand.

Officers pulled alongside the 34-year-old and shouted at him to stop. Burrows dropped the machete, and when officers searched the area they found the weapon under a car parked in the area.

Mr. Bannister said that when presented the machete, Burrows replied: ?I took it from a guy who was trying to chop me. I was defending myself.?

When asked whether he wanted to make a complaint about the fight, the defendant declined. Burrows, who was no previous convictions for knife-related offences, admitted the machete possession charge.

The Middletown Drive resident said was acting in self-defence and got hold of the weapon after wrestling it from another man during a scuffle.

Asked if he had anything to say before he was sentenced, Burrows said: ?I?m sorry and ask for the court?s leniency.?

But Mr. Warner said the defence was ?merely an explanation? and would not see him walk from court. reported last month how the tough new laws appeared to have been legally circumnavigated after a man who threatened to chop up a Police officer ? then waved a machete ? was handed a suspended sentence and a $3,500 fine.

The case of landscape gardener Neville Ewart Glasgow, 35, raised questions about the application of the new law.

A courtroom deal between the prosecution and defence changed a charge of possession of a machete to possession of an offensive weapon.