Man 'brandished axe' outside Penrith Morrisons, Carlisle Crown Court hears

A man brandished an axe outside a supermarket in front of a teenager who fled the scene in panic, a court has heard.

Mario Kanovsky, 24, had been due to stand trial but pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a bladed article in public.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how a 15-year-old boy on a bike almost knocked over Kanovsky close to Morrisons on Brunswick Road, Penrith, on the evening of Sunday 5 December, last year.

The boy stopped to apologise before Kanovsky removed an axe from his shorts and placed it in bushes.

As the boy told a security guard “he’s got an axe,” Kanovsky regained possession of the implement.

“The security guard told the boy to run off and he ran off himself,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke.

“They found refuge in a locked petrol station because the security guard knew the sales assistant in there. She locked them in.”

Kanovsky could be seen around 10 metres away with the security guard noting the axe’s outline within his jumper. He wandered off and was arrested soon after.

In interview he admitted having the axe and said he used it for chopping wood and hunting animals because he was homeless while living in woods near Penrith.

Mr Burke said of the offence: “Serious alarm was caused. The boy speaks of being seriously panicked.”

Kanovsky, of no fixed address, admitted illegal possession of a bladed article in public on the day he was due to stand trial at the crown court.

On Tuesday 4 October, a judge heard he has significant mental health difficulties but has seen a marked improvement in his condition while being treated in hospital.

Recorder Peter Horgan considered background information, including psychiatric and probation service reports ahead of the sentencing hearing.

A 12-month community order was imposed.

This comprises a mental health treatment requirement with arrangements in place for Kanovsky to receive ongoing help in hospital, as well as additional probation service rehabilitation. A deprivation order was made for the axe.

Recorder Horgan told Kanovsky, who appeared over a video link from hospital: “You were clearly committing an offence in the way you had the axe on the day, in the presence of a teenage boy who was vulnerable and scared.”