Man jailed over threats to set himself on fire and stab people in South Yorkshire area

A South Yorkshire man, whose threats to stab ‘people in the area’ and set himself on fire led to an armed police unit being called out, has been jailed.
Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11
Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11

Police were called out to Ingshead Avenue in Rawmarsh, Rotherham on the morning of September 2 last year, after a member of the public reported seeing defendant, Daniel Hallgate, ‘calling out for a knife’ in the street during a disturbance with his partner. 

“They attended and saw the defendant in the street, he was not wearing a top. He was bent down, and appeared to pick up a large hunting knife and ran towards his partner,” Neil Coxon, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court. 

Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11
Hallgate was sentenced during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, February 11
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He added: “On noticing the police car, he raised the knife in what police have described as a threatening manner.”

 

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Mr Coxon said Hallgate’s actions led the police officers to carry out a ‘preemptive strike’  and drove towards him in an attempt to prevent him from using the knife. 

Hallgate, 30, was knocked to the floor, but quickly got up and ran into the garden of a property in Ingshead Avenue. 

“At this point he began diverting the threats towards himself. He was effectively threatening to end his own life,” said Mr Coxon. 

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One of the police officers exited the vehicle and made their way towards Hallgate, at which point he made his way inside the nearby property and officers could see him attempting ‘to cut his own wrists,’ the court heard. 

Mr Coxon described how Hallgate, of no fixed abode, began opening different windows in the property, waving the knife about and threatening to take his own life, before appearing with a fuel container and a lighter. 

“He opened the window again, and this time he said he was going to set himself on fire. He shut the window downstairs, went upstairs, and made threats to stab people in the area….he made threats to set both himself and the property on fire,” said Mr Coxon, adding that officers could smell petrol, which prompted them to call their armed response unit to the scene. 

 

 

Officers eventually persuaded Hallgate to throw the knife out of the window, and to the floor, and he was arrested at the scene. 

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Mr Coxon said officers described Hallgate as being ‘aggressive’ in the police van after being arrested, and spat blood at one of the two officers who were travelling in the back of the van with him. 

He pleaded guilty to offences of affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing. 

Andrew Smith, defending, said Hallgate claims to have ended up with the knife after confiscating it from his partner, adding that the couple were both intoxicated at the time of the incident. 

Mr Smith said Hallgate normally takes anti-psychotic medication, but had stopped taking it when he committed the two offences. 

Recorder Duncan Smith sentenced Hallgate to 31 months in prison. 

- South Yorkshire Police have been asked to provide a custody image of Hallgate