A MAN who pulled a knife on a bystander outside a city centre pub during a row has been spared jail.

Last month at Oxford Crown Court, Grant Fisher, of Glyme Drive, Berinsfield, Wallingford, was warned that anybody carrying knives in public would be jailed.

Despite the warning from Judge Zoe Smith the 26-year old was handed a nine month jail term, suspended for two years at the same court yesterday.

Fisher had already admitted at Oxford Magistrates’ Court one count of threatening another with an offensive weapon.

He had been out with friends at The Oxford Retreat, Hythe Bridge Street on December 8 last year.

An argument broke out outside between Fisher’s group and another group which escalated into Fisher pulling out a kitchen knife and threatening a bystander with it.

Police were out and passing nearby and when the victim flagged them down they swarmed on the scene.

Fisher threw the knife into the river and was soon after arrested before he was later charged.

At an earlier hearing his defence barrister Steven Molloy described Fisher as a ‘gentle giant’ and said that because of his height - at more than six feet, people would often get into fights with him.

Judge Smith had warned him "an immediate custodial sentence is very much appropriate for the carrying of a knife.”

Despite the warning the same judge ordered a suspended jail term and also made him subject to a community order, stipulating 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.