Man covered in minestrone soup jailed after accidentally taking bread knife to supermarket

A man with a knife walked into a supermarket with ‘blood’ on his face, a court in Chester, Cheshire, heard. But it later emerged the 'blood' was nothing more sinister than minestrone soup that had been spilt while he was making lunch at home. Paul James Whyborn, 36, had been cutting bread to dunk in the soup when he got into a row with his partner and stormed out the house with the bread knife in his pocket. Staff at the Asda supermarket in Chester called the police after Whyborn removed it from his pocket and exclaimed ‘oh, my knife’, before transferring it to another pocket.

Prosecuting, Rob Youds told the court: “Police were called by store security who said there was a male in the store with blood on his face. As he was speaking to staff a large knife had been seen in his pocket.” CCTV played to the court showed Whyborn, of Chester, seemingly looking puzzled when he pulled the knife out in the area of the self-service tills on August 7. Defending, Michael Hemsley said: “He didn’t threaten anyone with the knife. It wasn’t a situation of aggression or anyone being in danger. “He had minestrone soup spilt over him at home.



“He left the house and decided to go to his mother’s because he had a row with his partner. He took a taxi to the shop. He had been cutting bread in the kitchen and put the knife in his pocket.” He added: “If he hadn’t taken it out, it wouldn’t have been known that he had a knife. It was only at the till that he remembered he had a knife in his pocket. He said to the assistant ‘oh my knife’ and took it from one pocket and put it in the other.” Mr Hemsley described the situation as a set of ‘highly unusual circumstances’, and said it was similar to a gardener or builder accidentally leaving a place of work with a knife in their pocket.

Whyborn initially refused to be interviewed by police but then pleaded guilty to the offence of possession a knife in a public place. He was jailed for four months by West Cheshire magistrates after falling foul of a new law that states anyone twice convicted of possessing a blade in public must be imprisoned. In 2004 he was convicted of possessing a lock knife, which he was said to have stored at the bottom of a fishing box in his car. From July this year, a second blade possession offence must carry a six month prison sentence, but this was reduced to four months due to the early guilty plea. Whyborn must also pay court costs and a victim surcharge of £260, and magistrates ordered the knife to be destroyed.