De-ontae Freeman(Image: Derbyshire Police)

The 20-year-old Derby man who has just been jailed for his seventh knife crime

by · Derbyshire Live

A young Derby man with a history of carrying knives was caught with a machete hidden down his trousers when the police stopped him riding a stolen motorbike. Derby Crown Court heard how De-ontae Freeman, who has amassed 13 previous court appearances at the age of just 20, has already been convicted of six blade offences before this one.

He was spotted interfering with the registration plate of another bike, ironically belonging to the same person whose original one had been stolen, in Abbey Street, and followed by the police. Making off he was followed and caught in Stockbrook Park where he told officers they would find the weapon in his waistband.

Jailing Freeman, of Littleover, for a year, Judge Martin Hurst said: “I have lost count of the number of young men I have seen sitting there, whose mothers and grandmothers are in the public gallery, to support them saying ‘why does he keep doing this? He’s such a lovely boy’ when they go out and do such foolish things as this.

“At some stage you have to wake up and smell the coffee, as the phrase goes, and say ‘I don’t want to keep missing Christmas with my mum, grandma and little sister’. You have got a large number of previous convictions, the most troubling are the six previous convictions for carrying knives.”

Jemma Stanford, prosecuting, said a motorbike was stolen from a Derby man in July this year and he spent £1,500 replacing it. She said on September 9, he had parked the replacement bike in the Abbey Street car park while he went to work.

The prosecutor said members of the public spotted two men interfering with one of the registration plates and the police were called. Miss Stanford said Freeman, of Micklecroft Gardens and the second man made off on the bike, which by chance happened to be the one stolen from the same man two months earlier. Miss Stanford said: “It was followed up Uttoxeter Road and police identified the defendant as being a disqualified driver and so therefore had no insurance.

“He was apprehended by the police in Stockbrook Park and the bike had the licence plate stolen from the second motorcycle. A search found him to be carrying a large machete in his waistband.”

The defendant pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article, handling stolen goods, theft, driving without a licence and without insurance and has 13 previous convictions for 26 offences. Justin Ablott, defending, said his client’s “most persuasive piece of mitigation was full and frank admissions” to the police and the courts.

He said: “He is still a young man who is still only 20 and whose mother and grandmother are in court to support him. He is a young man who knows he’s missed an awful lot of his young life already and who tells me he is very close to his 11-year-old sister.

“He tells me he is distressed at the amount of Christmases he missed with her and his family. He’s missed the last three (being in custody) and he’s going to miss the next one now.”