He was so convinced he was going to be jailed that he brought a packed holdall as well
Christopher Sellers appeared at Hull Crown Court(Image: Hull Live)
A cocaine user who kicked a policeman during a bad-tempered confrontation was so certain that he was going to be jailed that he turned up at court carrying a holdall packed with belongings – and a sleeping bag. Christopher Sellers realised that he faced prison after breaching a suspended sentence that had been imposed for threatening to slice open the throats of a group of teenagers.
He pulled out the blade of a multi-tool during the nasty disturbance and later told police that it was a good job that they had turned up because he would have killed the youngsters, Hull Crown Court heard. Sellers, 59, of Albion Terrace, Bridlington, admitted assaulting a police officer as an emergency worker on September 18.
Amber Hobson, prosecuting, said that a police officer went to Albion Terrace and arrested Sellers on suspicion of a domestic incident. Sellers kicked him on his leg, causing reddening and bruising at the top of his knee.
During police interview, Sellers said that he did not remember the incident but he apologised. “He said that he had taken cocaine through the night –and that affected his memory,” added Miss Hobson.
Sellers had convictions for six previous offences, including threatening behaviour in June 2022 and threatening a person with a knife on June 25, 2024, when he was given a one-year suspended prison sentence, with 20 days’ rehabilitation and six months’ alcohol treatment. He was in breach of that order.
Abigail Rowley, mitigating, said that Sellers apologised at the first opportunity during police interview and told officers that his behaviour was out of character for him. “It was a relatively short-lived assault, which consisted of him kicking back at the officer while being arrested,” said Miss Rowley.
“It was low-level physical harm. He did show genuine remorse and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.”
Despite his fears about being jailed, unemployed father-of-four Sellers was fined £50 for breaching the suspended sentence and he was given a six-month conditional discharge for the assault.
The hearing in June 2024 was told that Sellers got into an argument with a group of teenagers in Promenade Gardens, Bridlington. One of them, aged 14, had been joking with a friend and jokingly told the pal to “f*** off”.
Sellers was on the opposite side of the road at a bus stop and he crossed over and approached them. He pulled a multi-tool out of his coat pocket, unfolded the blade and waved it in the direction of the group, saying: “I’ll f***ing stab you.”
He told the teenagers that he would slice their throats open. One of the teenagers told him to go away and called Sellers an alcoholic. Sellers repeatedly went up to them with the knife and the incident was seen by an off-duty police officer, who alerted colleagues.
Sellers made what was interpreted as a threat and he was intimidating. Police used a Taser to detain Sellers but it was not fully activated. He complied and dropped the multi tool. Sellers told police: “If you guys hadn’t showed up, I would have killed them.” During police interview, he admitted that he had said this but added that he would not actually have done this and he would not have killed them.
He admitted that he had been drinking and claimed that the teenagers had been “behaving like scrotes”. He claimed that he had been trying to scare them off but had little memory of the incident.
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