A 22-year-old man yesterday admitted wielding a knife and a hammer during an emotional outburst on Front Street.

Zacchaeus Rawlins, from Spring Benny, Sandys, pleaded guilty to charges of having a bladed article, a kitchen knife with an eight inch blade, and an offensive weapon, a construction hammer with a hatchet end, during an incident on Tuesday.

Magistrates’ Court heard that at around 10.30 that evening, a security guard at the Bistro Bar noticed Rawlins standing in the Pier Six parking lot in an upset state holding a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other. The guard then saw the man cross the street, walking towards the bar.

He stopped the man, holding both of his arms, and asked him “what’s the problem.”

Rawlins responded: “My girlfriend kissed and hugged up some guy. I want to split his head.”

Another staff member took the weapons and the police were called.

Questioned by officers, Rawlins admitted having both of the items without a legitimate purpose, saying: “I just wanted to scare her.”

Defence lawyer Nancy Vieira said the incident was a “tremendous act of stupidity” caused in part because the defendant was impaired and upset about an incident involving his fiance. She explained that both of the weapons were tools of the trade, which he had kept in his bike seat for work purposes.

While Ms Vieira said the incident was a one-off, stressing Rawlins’ clean record, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner expressed concern that “matters of the heart” were unpredictable and have been known to escalate over time.

“This is the problem with matters of the heart, that there is a great risk of them reoccurring by the very nature of the type of offence,” Mr Warner said. “If you are telling me this was a spontaneous emotive reaction, then obviously it begs the question in terms of it happening again.”

Mr Warner ordered a social inquiry report and a drug assessment, adjourning the matter until March 13 for sentencing.

He released Rawlins on $10,000 bail with a like surety, under the condition that he wears an electronic monitoring device and remain at his home.