A drug dealer who'd taken a beating recorded his injured face on his phone in a scene remincent of Travis Bickle in psychological thriller drama Taxi Driver. Daniel Bickerton used his phone to film himself complaining that "people would pay the consequences", followed by the sound of him racking the slide of a pistol off camera, and images of him loading and pointing a gun at the camera phone.
Nottingham Crown Court heard it was similar to a scene by Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, who buys several guns and takes to carrying them – taped to his limbs, for example, or in hidden spring-loaded holsters - and pointing them at a mirror as he practised his moves.
Bickerton, 40, was arrested after police raided his small flat in Princes Street, Mansfield, on June 30, finding his kitchen, bathroom and bedroom full of illegal and legal weapony and drugs. Powdered cocaine was in his pocket (54 grams), and under a cushion he was sat on was a loaded 9mm blank-firing pistol - which was incapable of discharge.
