Man threatened to stab off-duty police officer who was enjoying Easter walk with wife

Shaun Tracey, 37, also told the PSNI sergeant that he was going to knock him out during the encounter at Botanic Gardens in south Belfast.

Tracey, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon in public, common assault and disorderly behaviour.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard he drunkenly approached the off-duty officer and his wife as they were walking through Botanic Gardens at 9.30am on Saturday.

“The sergeant stated that he became agitated and began shouting ‘I'm going to knock you out’,” a prosecution lawyer said.

“He asked the man to move away from him, but the male raised his right hand in which there was a 660ml bottle of beer and shouted ‘I’m going to f***ing stab you’.”

Tracey then tried to get another man to come and join him.

Fearing for their safety, the officer and his wife moved to another area of the park and called police for assistance.

Meanwhile, Tracey and his unidentified associate continued verbally abusing other members of the public in Botanic Gardens at the time.

One young woman working at a coffee kiosk sought help from the sergeant because the two men were giving her “grief”, the court heard.

Defence solicitor Patrick Higgins said Tracey has been homeless for most of his life.

“He had been sleeping rough for the last two months in a tent in Botanic Gardens,” Mr Higgins disclosed.

“He was totally consumed by alcohol and apologises fully for his actions which were most unsavoury.”

Sentencing Tracey, District Judge Mark Hamill stated: “He does this to what happens to be an off-duty police officer who is simply walking through a park with his wife.

“There will be five months' custody, because he pleaded guilty early.”