A KNUCKLEDUSTER claimed to have been sitting on a man's bedroom table as an ornament for a decade led to his arrest under a new law. 

David Taylor, of Highfield Road, Newport, admitted possessing the metal weapon at his former address in Fleet Way, Shalfleet, on April 22.

At around 7.40pm, police went to Taylor's mother's home, where he was living at the time, and arrested him for a completely unrelated matter.

While they were trying to get Taylor dressed, officers noticed a knuckleduster resting on a table nearby, so, to his surprise, he was also arrested for possessing the weapon privately, said Ann Smout, prosecuting, at the Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court.

Taylor told officers he bought it at a car boot sale at Northwood House, Cowes, purely as an ornament or paperweight — and was unaware the law had changed to possess such an item privately.

Taylor, 42, insisted he had never used the knucklester for any other reason.

Mrs Smout told the bench she had to look up the law on this case as it was the first of its kind she had ever dealt with.

The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 bans the possession of dangerous items in private, such as knuckledusters and throwing stars.

Also read: Isle of Wight court case over private knuckleduster possession

Taylor was last in court in 2020 for harassment and malicious communications offences and was jailed, but has no previous convictions for any weapons offences, the bench was told.

For Taylor, Jim Osborne said police had entered the same address before this latest incident and had not mentioned the knuckleduster.

"He tells me when the officer picked it up, it had a ring of dust around it where it had been on his bedroom table for almost ten years," said Mr Osborne.

"As he told the custody sergeant, if he had known it was illegal, he would've thrown it away.

"The law on this type of offence is so new, there are no sentencing guidelines."

Taylor was handed a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £22 victim surcharge. 

Last week, for the same offence, William Appell, 28, of Highfield Road, Cowes, was fined £100, with £85 costs and a £34 surcharge from Island magistrates.