A JUDGE is to ask a top medic to personally attend court for a report on a "paranoid" man who threatened to kill a cabbie he did not know.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Carl Brierley, 24, walked into a Colne taxi office carrying a 12-14 inch bladed knife and told driver Riaz Ahmed he was going to die.

Judge Raymond Bennett, who had been told Brierley had been receiving treatment from psychiatrist Dr Ian Blake, said he was concerned about the random risk Brierley presented to the public.

The judge, who added the defendant did not remember anything about what he did, said he did not want it to happen again.

He adjourned sentence until the consultant can attend to report on Brierley's treatment.

Brierley, of Varley Street, Colne, had earlier admitted making threats to kill and affray. He was bailed on condition he does not approach witnesses or go within 100 yards of Union Street, Colne.

Rachel Woods, prosecuting, said Mr Ahmed was in the office in Union Street in the early hours when Brierley went in and told him: "I am going to kill you." He was carrying a knife and repeated the threat, making a number of stabbing motions.

Mr Ahmed managed to phone police as the defendant ran out of the office. He was later identified by the cabbie, after being seen on Albert Road minutes later. Police found a carving knife in a rear yard.

When the defendant was interviewed, he denied having had a knife with him and claimed he had never seen it before.

He finally said he had taken the knife from a friend's kitchen.

Mark Stuart, defending, said in the past Brierley had not had any treatment for his illness, but he was now getting it.

The offence was extraordinary and there was no motivation for him to commit it.

Brierley felt people were watching him and was paranoid. He had been seeing the psychiatrist and was on medication.

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