Lee Southan (Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago
A man who swung a homemade cosh and a kitchen knife in front of members of the public in Aberystwyth, then set off a fire extinguisher at a police officer while trying to get away, has been jailed.
Lee Southan, 40, of Bridge Street in the town, was given an overall sentence of 18 months at Swansea Crown Court. He had previously admitted two offences:
- Possession of an offensive weapon in a public place
- Possession of a bladed article in a public place
Why he armed himself
Southan’s guilty pleas were entered on the basis that he had been at home that evening when a man tried to get into his property by kicking the door in. He accepted he had used the cosh, made from a sock stuffed with glass mushroom ornaments, and the knife in an attempt to scare the man away.
Bridge Street at 9pm
The trouble began at 9pm on August 8 this year. Prosecutor Brian Simpson said people on Bridge Street saw a topless man, later identified as Southan, shouting while waving “a cosh made from two glass mushroom ornaments in a sock”.
Southan went into a property on the street. A second man then repeatedly kicked its closed front door.
A short time later Southan came back out holding a kitchen knife with a seven-inch blade. He swung it at the other man and shouted that he would stab him, and the man ran off down Pier Street.
Several people who saw the incident later gave statements to police, among them a mum and her daughter and a couple heading home with a takeaway. All described being shocked, frightened and concerned by what they witnessed.
Running from police
Southan went back into his flat and came out again with a rucksack before running off along Princes Street. As he went, he was heard on a mobile phone telling someone words to the effect of: “I won’t be able to stay there, they know where I live.”
Officers were called and began searching the town centre. A police constable soon spotted Southan and approached him. Southan then pulled a fire extinguisher from his rucksack and discharged it towards the officer, sending up a large cloud of white powder that blocked the officer’s view. He ran again but was chased and caught.
Police recovered:
- The sock cosh, from his rucksack
- A knife hidden between two boxes in the hallway of his flat
Defence arguments
Ian Ibrahim, representing Southan, told the court his client was only in the dock because someone had tried to break down his front door and attack him. He said it was noteworthy that the man threatened with the weapons had not made a statement to police. He described that man as “a person who is very well known” who “doesn’t want to show his face”.
Mr Ibrahim said that when someone was trying to get into his flat, Southan had “acted a bit foolishly” in the heat of the moment. He had decided to “fight back” when he could have called the police. The barrister added that the weapons had not in reality gone more than a metre or two beyond the curtilage of Southan’s property.
What the recorder said
Recorder Ben Blakemore called it an “ugly incident” that had played out on a summer evening in a seaside town, with members of the public nearby. He noted the submission that Southan had acted “foolishly”, but said that in his view “it was more than that”.
He said Southan had escalated an ongoing situation by bringing a knife into it. Had the man at the door “stood up” to him, the recorder said, “it could have turned out very, very differently”.
Turning to the escape, he noted Southan had set off a fire extinguisher as he ran, adding: “though quite what you were trying to achieve with that I do not know”.
Sentencing
Southan received a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The recorder also activated three months of a 12-month suspended sentence previously imposed for a cannabis offence, ordering it to run consecutively. That brought the total to 18 months.
A conditional discharge was revoked, but the recorder chose not to re-sentence Southan for that matter.
Southan will serve up to 40 per cent of his sentence in custody. He will then be released on licence to serve the rest in the community.
A lengthy record
The court heard Southan has 20 previous convictions for 33 offences. These include:
- 2014: possession of a knife in a public place.
- 2016: robbery and possession of an offensive weapon. This involved a robbery at a Premier store in Aberystwyth, for which he was jailed for four years.
- April 2025: a suspended prison sentence for possession of cannabis with intent to supply. He had been arrested amid “chaotic scenes” at Aberystwyth railway station after arriving in the town by train with £1,500 worth of cannabis in a bag.
- October last year: assault by beating, his most recent conviction, for kicking a police officer after being arrested over unrelated matters. He was given a conditional discharge.
Mr Simpson told the court the Bridge Street incident happened while Southan was subject to both the suspended sentence and the conditional discharge.
