33-year-old in court after brandishing baseball bat in town centre fight

A man who pulled out a baseball bat during a town centre fight has been sentenced.Bill Richardson, 33, of School Road in Walton Highway, appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.He pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in a public place – an offence he committed on April 27 last year.

On that date, Richardson was one of two men who became involved in an altercation in a car park close to Lynn’s Vancouver Quarter.The other man was arrested following the fight. However, after reviewing CCTV footage of the incident, police noticed that Richardson had at one stage brandished the baseball bat.It had been put away by the time officers arrived at the scene.Richardson was originally handed a conditional caution for the offence. It required him to pay a £50 fine and complete an anger management course by September 20, but he failed to do so.However, he was given a second chance to carry out these requirements by November – but again, he did not.He therefore wound up in court this week, where he appeared unrepresented.Richardson told magistrates that his cousin had been run over by a vehicle prior to the incident, leading to his own head being “all over the place”.Probation services deemed the defendant unsuitable to carry out unpaid work as part of his sentence.Magistrates therefore handed him a £200 fine, while he will also pay an &80 victim surcharge and £50 in legal costs.