A DRUNK railway track worker brandished a pistol and an iron bar during a confrontation in the street with drinkers from a Stratford pub.
And a town centre CCTV camera captured the terrifying moment when Adrian Swan pointed the gun at another man’s head.
After watching the seven-minute recording, a judge at Warwick Crown Court jailed the 26-year-old, of Little Meadow, Great Oakley, Corby, Northants, for 22 months.
He had pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing an offensive weapon during the incident.
Prosecutor Tim Sapwell said in May, Swan and some colleagues, who were staying at the Premier Inn in Stratford while working in the area, went to the Golden Bee pub in Sheep Street.
There was a confrontation between some of them and other customers, which spilled into the street outside.
The CCTV footage showed once out in the street Swan, with the hood of his black hoodie up, had armed himself with a pistol – which was later found to be a low-powered BB gun – and a metal bar which he swings at another man’s head.
Swan was also seen to appears to cock the pistol before pointing it at the head of one of the opposing group.
But when he swings the bar at another of them, that man punches him in retaliation – at which he drops the pistol and turns and runs, heading back to the Premier Inn.
Neil Davis, defending, conceded fully trained welder Swan had a conviction for affray when he was a youth and for a public order offence in 2015.
He said Swan had not left the Premier Inn that evening with the weapons, but when the confrontation began outside the pub he had got them from the works van which was parked nearby.
Jailing Swan, Judge Stephen Eyre QC told him: “There clearly is real good in you, but I have to punish you for drunken thuggery. You went and got an iron bar and an imitation firearm, either to use in the fight or to threaten others.
“The gun was a ball bearing pistol, in itself not particularly harmful, but it had the appearance of being a firearm and to be frightening to member of the public.
“You used it to cause fear in the town centre of Stratford, and you have a record for acts of violence in public.”
