A 36-year-old man was handed a nine-month prison sentence yesterday after he pleaded guilty to threatening a prison officer and his family with a knife in the parking lot of a Pembroke grocery store.

Gregory Eugene Minors, who is currently in prison serving a 12-month sentence, originally pleaded not guilty before Acting Senior Magistrate Carlise Greaves to charges of using threatening words and wielding a weapon in relation to the incident, which occurred on May 24.

However, he later changed his plea and admitted to threatening the prison officer in front of the officer's wife, seven-year-old daughter and other members of the community.

The court heard that Minors, wielding a knife, said: "You see this, I will cut you now."

Minors also threatened to cut the throat of other officers, the court heard.

The prison officer, fearing for his own and his family's safety, reported the incident to Police.

In court yesterday, Minors claimed prison officers had beaten him while he was in jail.

He also said he was upset that his case had not come up in court and, for that reason, he had lashed out at the prison officer.

"Whatever your problem is with the prison officers, you can't do that," Mr. Greaves told the man.

Mr. Greaves handed Minors a 12-month prison sentence on the charges but discounted three months from the sentence in consideration of the guilty plea.

"There is a message with every single sentence," he said.

Minors was sentenced to nine months in prison to run consecutively with the 12-month sentence he is currently serving.