Footballer jailed for having knife

A Commercial League footballer out celebrating his team?s win was sentenced to three years imprisonment after getting caught with a nine-inch long kitchen knife on Front Street.

Perry Kuhn Simons, 29, of Long Bay Lane, Somerset, pleaded guilty in Magistrates? Court on Thursday to carrying a bladed article in a public place on March 12.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke said Police responded to a report of an armed man outside Docksiders pub at 12.10 a.m. last Sunday.

?A witness pointed the defendant out and described his clothes,? Ms. Clarke said. ?He was walking west away from Docksiders.?

But when Police searched Simons? left hand ? concealed with a black jacket ? they found him holding a kitchen-knife with a 4.75-inch blade.

?Ni**ers try to kill me in town, so I carry it,? Simons told Police after dropping the blade.

Simons apologised to the court, saying he had forgotten he left the knife in his pocket from work the following day.

?That was the knife I used for work to cut bristles off brushes,? the painter said. ?My soccer team won the league and we all went out to celebrate. I got intoxicated. I really don?t remember nothing from that night.?

Simons said he had been incarcerated in 1999 but since his release in 2001 had turned his life around.

But Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner did not believe his story.

?This is a huge kitchen knife. A Betty Crocker,? Mr. Warner said. ?The evidence is that you were confronted by Police and was carrying the knife in your hand for protection.?

The magistrate said Simons? explanation was no defence, and this was precisely the type of behaviour legislators aimed to stamp out when they amended the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2005 last July.

?There is a mandatory minimum sentence. I don?t have any discretion in the matter,? Mr. Warner said. ?In light of all the circumstances I impose a minimum sentence of three years imprisonment.?

The maximum sentence for this offence was five years. Simons then asked for a fine for an unrelated matter to be added to his three-year jail term.

?I?m not paying the fine,? Simons said before being escorted from court.

But Mr. Warner said any additional sentences would be added onto Simons? three-year sentence.

Cocaine discovered in suitcases at Airport

A man caught with cocaine with a street value of more than $250,000 hidden in his suitcases after getting off a flight at Bermuda International Airport has pleaded guilty to attempting to import the drug on to the Island.

Appearing at the Supreme Court Jahkemo Virgil admitted the charge, which related to an incident on November 8 last year when he was stopped at the airport?s Customs checkpoint where eight packages of the drug were discovered stashed into the corners of two suitcases he was carrying.

Virgil, 23, who did not have an address listed in court documents, had flown in on an Air Canada flight when he was stopped and found to be in possession of 1,147 grams of cocaine.

The cocaine has an estimated street value of around $286,000.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves remanded Virgil in custody for social inquiry reports to be prepared and ordered him to return to court on May 3 for sentencing.