Man pulled out imitation gun at railway station – court

AN “ERRATIC and paranoid” man took out an imitation firearm and pointed it at the sky at a busy railway station before he was heard saying: “You better get the police before I harm someone.”

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When he was arrested by police at his home, a further imitation weapon was discovered.

Benjamin Stockham, 45, approached two security guards on the concourse of Cardiff Central railway station on July 3 last year in a distressed state. He told the men he “needed protection” and asked them to call the police.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard the guards believed the defendant was intoxicated as a result of his “erratic and paranoid” manner.

He told the men a county lines drug gang had taken over his home and he and his partner needed to escape to a place of safety.