Quick-thinking knife menace causes courtroom chaos as he jumps out of Portsmouth Crown Court dock after being jailed

When knife-wielding menace Clayton Quick was jailed for 18 months at Portsmouth Crown Court for a string of violent attacks on his former partner, the defendant stood shell-shocked in the dock for several seconds as his imprisonment began to dawn on him. The 26-year-old, who has multiple personality disorders, then started to desperately plead with judge William Ashworth to spare him prison before asking if he could hug his pregnant partner goodbye.

But with the judge standing firm, chaos suddenly erupted in the courtroom as the Quick-thinking defendant leapt out of the dock and dashed over to his new girlfriend for a loving embrace as court staff hit the panic button. But despite Quick briefly roaming free, he went back into the dock of his own accord shouting, ‘I love you’.

Quick was then ushered into a holding room at the back of the dock by an officer before screaming abuse.

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Quick, of Nessus Street, Buckland, was less than impressed with his sentence having inflicted a volley of physical and mental abuse against his ex-partner, who had kindly let him stay at her Havant address to save him being homeless. The court heard how Quick became enraged at being woken by the lady’s alarm when she was working from home on January 18 last year.

‘You might as well kill yourself,’ Quick said before launching a lighter at her and stamping on her legs.

Then on March 11, he was ‘screaming’ at the woman while cutting himself with a razor blade before shooting himself with a BB gun in the arm - and then firing at the victim in the leg. In the evening when the female was in the kitchen, Quick picked up a large knife and ‘swung’ at her.

The following day, Quick’s beleaguered ex-partner was on the end of more putdowns before he punched her in the arm. She called the police and tried to stop him leaving but Quick dashed out of the front door - smashing a mirror on his way.

The woman, in a statement read out to court, said: ‘He made me feel worthless. When someone tells you that every day you start to believe it. I felt like a prisoner in my own house.’

The court heard Quick, with 84 offences to his name including robbery, had lived a troubled life and suffered from ‘mental health difficulties’ due to his personality disorders.

Judge Ashworth said Quick posed an ‘imminent risk’ of ‘serious harm’ and pointed out how police had reported being called to ‘disturbances’ at the address he was living with his current partner. ‘There’s a real risk to the current relationship you’re in,’ the judge said before concluding he could not suspend the sentence.

Quick said: ‘Please, please, please. I’ve got my little daughter on the way…she’s going to be homeless. I’ll do anything.’

Quick continued to beg as the judge told him to ‘go with the officer’ – before jumping out of the dock to cuddle his partner.

Quick, who admitted threatening a person with a weapon, criminal damage and four counts of assault by beating, was also handed a five-year restraining order with his jail term.