13-05-2025
Man who threatened Devon Wetherspoon customers with axe jailed
A man who marched into a Wetherspoon pub armed with an axe and threatened two men in the beer garden has been jailed. Jason Semple, 54, of Tavistock Road, Okehampton, Devon, admitted two charges of threatening a person with a bladed article at the White Hart Hotel in Okehampton. The incident happened at about 18:00 BST on 13 April, with Semple later arrested a mile-and-a-half (2.4km) away but the axe was not Exeter Crown Court, Semple admitted "shame and embarrassment" to what he did before being sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Sentencing, Judge David Evans said Semple's intention was to frighten rather than use the axe, but added there was a foreseeable risk that the weapon could have been court also heard Semple, who had 140 previous convictions, had been drinking all claimed he could not remember what happened in the short-lived incident, which was also caught on Semple added that he felt shame and embarrassment for what had happened, the court heard.
