Davy Bourke tasered at Seaway car park before dropping knife

Davy Bourke has been jailed for 13 months after officers armed with tasers went to Marine Parade in Southend.

Police received multiple calls saying there was a man with a knife in the road involved in a disturbance near the Hope Hotel on August 13 last year.

When police arrived shortly after 6.20pm, they were told the man had run off towards the Seaway car park.

Officers ran up to the car park and spotted the 25-year-old, and told him to stop running, warning him he would be tasered if he kept going.

Bourke, of Roots Hall Drive, Southend, ignored these warnings and kept trying to escape the officers, who were left with no choice but to taser him.

As he fell and hit the floor, police saw a lock knife fall from Bourke’s clothing, and he was subsequently arrested for possessing a bladed article.

Despite officers witnessing this, Bourke said afterwards “I didn’t even have a knife, why did you do that to me” but eventually went on to admit the offence.

He was jailed at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

The court was also told that in 2018 Bourke had been arrested and sentenced after he was found with a knife in a casino in central London, meaning he carried out two of the same crimes in the space of a year.

Mitigation for Bourke said he had been stabbed himself twice before in unprovoked attacks in 2012 and 2015 and has since been suffering with anxiety and PTSD as a result of them, and that he had the knife as a means to protect himself.

However, Bourke does not use this as an excuse for the distress caused.

Judge Samantha Cohen told Bourke: “You denied it was yours at the scene. You were summonsed to attend court in October but you had to be arrested on warrant.

“There has been a delay in the realisation of this case but it’s a delay that is your fault.

“People who carry knives, especially for a second time, can expect to go to prison.

“You know how dangerous they are, and that’s why they’re treated as serious as they are.”