A passenger has been fined after he was caught hiding a baseball bat down his trousers at a busy metro station.
Shawn-Lee Sutton was stopped and searched by officers in Byker after concerned members of public rang the police claiming to have spotted a man carrying a weapon. A court heard that a baseball bat was discovered down the leg of the 30-year-old's trousers and he was arrested.
Sutton, of Adelaide Court, in Gateshead, claimed in interview that the weapon was his and he had it for his own protection but his solicitor later told magistrates that he'd found it in the street and had intended to take it home. Sutton has now been fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a 348 victim surcharge after he pleaded possession of an offensive weapon.
