A man has walked free from court despite admitting possessing an axe in a Colchester pub.

Ashley Mathers was seen with the axe in the town's Playhouse pub last November, Chelmsford Crown Court was told yesterday.

The 26-year-old admitted possessing the axe in a public place and was jailed for a total of 127 days.

But he was told by Judge Peter Fenn he would be released immediately, as he had spent the equivalent of a three-month sentence while remanded in custody.

The court heard police were called to the pub on November 28 last year after reports about someone with a hatchet or an axe.

Mathers, of Honeysuckle Way, Greenstead, Colchester, was arrested.

He told police he had taken the axe from his father who had been drinking.

The court heard Mathers handed the axe back to his father, thinking he would be in trouble if he was caught with it.

Samantha Leigh, mitigating, said the axe was bought by Mathers' father earlier that day.

It was new and still had the price tag on it, but was not wrapped up.

Miss Leigh added: "It should have been in a bag and should have been taken straight home, and not taken into a pub.

"It was not waved about or used to threaten anyone," Miss Leigh said.

Mathers was jailed for 120 days for the axe charge and another seven days consecutive for being in breach of a conditional discharge imposed for another matter.