Custody of a Knife in a public place or school is an offence under Section 11C of the Summary Offences Act 1988 which carries a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison.
To establish the offence, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that:
A knife includes:
A public place is:
A place or part of a premises that is open to, or used by the public, whether or not for payment, and whether or not only open only to a limited class of persons.
It includes privately owned places that are open to the public, such as:
A defence to the charge is that you had a ‘reasonable excuse’ for possessing the knife which includes, but is not limited to, the knife being ‘reasonably necessary’ for:
The onus is on you to prove the reasonable excuse ‘on the balance of probabilities’ which means greater than 50%.
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