Judge orders man should be arrested for eating in Portsmouth court

A JUDGE has ordered a man to be '˜arrested' after '˜eating' in the public gallery and shouting back at court.

District judge Anthony Callaway demanded the supporter of a woman hauled into court for having a knife in the street be ‘arrested’ - sparking a war of words.

As the defendant, Leisa Andrews, walked toward the dock at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court while talking to the man, the judge told her: ‘You think this is a joke?

‘I will put you down the cells and deal with it at 2pm.’

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But as Andrews, 39, of Bishopfield Road, Fareham, took her place in the dock, the judge switched his focus to the man she had walked in with.

He said: ‘I’m telling you to leave this court, I don’t have eating in here.’

The unknown man blasted back at the judge saying he was not eating, and shouting across the court he said: ‘I’m not being spoken to like that!’

After the man left, the judge again demanded he be arrested. It’s understood he was barred from entering the court building again – but was not arrested.

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Addressing Andrews, who admitted having an 8cm red kitchen knife in The Gillies, Fareham, on April 24, the judge said she looked ‘extremely unwell’ asking her if she had anything to drink before coming into court.

Andrews replied: ‘I’ve had no medication this morning.’

Just minutes after her case was adjourned, Andrews’ estranged son was brought into the dock to answer a charge of shoplifting.

Jimmy Andrews, 21, of Milton Road, Portsmouth, admitted stealing £170 worth of shirts from TK Maxx in Portsmouth on April 26.

But Rhys Evans, for Andrews, told how he turned up at court only for his estranged mother - who he had not seen for months - to ‘latch herself on to him’.

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Sentencing, the judge said he was ‘sorry’ the pair had ended up in the same court on the same day after hearing the son had spent his life in care.

Andrews, the son, was given a two-month jail term suspended for 18 months.

His mother was handed a 12-month community order with 20 rehabilitation days in her separate case where, the court heard, she had been self harming with the knife. She must pay £170 costs.

A knife was found in a bin after she had an argument in the street, the court was told.