Clacton: Drug user 'off his head' on cocaine twice brandished knife

Across two consecutive days, William Kilbourn, 30, brandished a knife while under the influence of drugs.

On the first occasion, on July 24, he knocked on a family’s front door in Thorrington, alleging he was being chased by someone who was “trying to kill him”.

The homeowner told his wife and children to go upstairs, letting Kilbourn into his address and calling the police on his request.

Ipswich Crown Court heard the Good Samaritan tried to calm Kilbourn down, providing him with a glass of water.

But at this stage he noticed Kilbourn was holding a knife in his hand, the blade pressed against his arm “as though he was trying to conceal it”.

The man went upstairs and barricaded himself in a bedroom with his family, making a further call to the police.

When officers arrived, Kilbourn stepped outside and admitted he was carrying the blade.

Kilbourn was arrested, charged and released on bail, but the next day police were called to reports he was running around Orchards Holiday Village, in St Osyth, brandishing a kitchen knife.

The court heard security staff spotted him running past “various members of the public, including families with young children”, carrying a knife wrapped in a T-shirt.

He was detained by security staff until police arrived to arrest him.

He later admitted two counts of possession of a knife.

In mitigation, the court heard Kilbourn’s daughter has a life-limiting disease, leading him to “going about the wrong way” dealing with his issues.

The court heard he has a new partner who has become a “rock of support”.

Jailing Kilbourn, of The Common, Crostwight, North Walsham, for eight months, Recorder Graham Huston said he was “clearly out of his head on cocaine on both occasions”.

“The state of your mind was such that anything could have happened,” he said.

“God only knows what was going through your mind.

“To take a knife or a blade into either of these situations is extremely dangerous.”