A TEENAGER who threatened an elderly man with a knife was caught by police after trying to discard it at a Worcester school, magistrates heard.

Police officers were called to Perdiswell playing fields, off Bilford Road, Worcester, after the victim reported the incident to them, Worcester Magistrates Youth Court was told.

The Worcester youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before the court yesterday where he admitted possessing a blade exceeding 3ins.

Prosecuting, Sally Hill said the man in the incident at Perdiswell playing fields was confronted by three youths, including the 14-year-old defendant, on Tuesday, November 11.

"He was subjected to abuse by two of them and spat at," she said.

"In the course of all this unpleasantness, one of the offenders produced the knife and began to point it at waist level in the direction of the witness."

Miss Hill said the youth was spotted a week later throwing the knife into a bin in one of the classroom blocks at Elgar Technology College, on Bilford Road.

He was reported to the police and subsequently arrested, where he admitted possessing the weapon.

The youth was reprimanded by police last year for an incident of common assault and given a final warning earlier this year for criminal damage and a public order offence.

In mitigation, Mark Sheward said the teenager had been building a "base" on Perdiswell playing fields with friends at the time of the offence.

"When they were in the field there was some kind of confrontation with a man but there was certainly no suggestion or not my client's intention to cause fear to him by production of this knife.

"He threw the knife to one side when the police came and went back to get it but it was his intention to discard it and he did that at the school.

"That he tried to do that suggests that he realised the error of his ways."

Magistrates imposed a four-month referral on the teenager and made an order for the forfeiture and destruction of the knife. They also ordered him to pay £34 court costs.