A MAN who was found with a knife and a knuckle duster in two Linnvale streets has been detained for 20 months.

And James Rae will be supervised for a further nine months on his release from custody.

A sheriff told the 20-year-old there was “no option” other than detention - partly because Rae has a previous conviction for carrying a knife dating back to just last year.

Rae, who was described in Dumbarton Sheriff Court papers as an inmate at the young offenders’ institution at Polmont, near Falkirk, appeared before Sheriff William Gallacher on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing.

Rae admitted having the knife in his possession in Greenwood Quadrant on May 6, and to having the knuckle duster with him in nearby Westwood Quadrant later the same day.

Both offences were committed while Rae was the subject of a bail order granted at the court in Dumbarton on April 23.

It was stated that after a disturbance elsewhere, Reid had gone to fetch the knife, but also that he routinely carried a knuckle duster with him.

Rae’s solicitor, Judith Reid, admitted that the prospect of a non-custodial sentence was “unreasonable and unrealistic”.

Ms Reid said: “He accepts he’s in this up to his neck.

“Something clearly happened to him a few years ago which has caused him to go through his young adulthood with significant emotional difficulties.

“It’s acknowledged that he has not dealt with these difficulties in any sort of proper way, but they are real, and stem from an event in which he was the victim.

“The perpetrators of that event continue to live close to him, and he’s very open about the fact that this is why he carries a knuckle duster with him regularly.

“It’s acknowledged that society cannot allow that to continue, and that he faces a considerable amount of time in custody.

“But he is still only 20, and it’s my submission that he is a young man who could still go on and live a fruitful and law-abiding life.”

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Ms Reid said she had “significant concerns” about how vulnerable Rae, who turns 21 in September, will be in a custodial environment.

Sheriff William Gallacher said he believed the public would be “at risk of serious harm” if Rae were not supervised further at the end of his sentence.

The sheriff told Rae: “You have deliberately taken into your possession an item which can cause immeasurable damage to others.

“I’ve been doing this job for a very long time - long enough, certainly to have seen many people, usually young men, standing in the dock saying ‘I didn’t intend to use it’, and somebody has died.

“I’m concerned to see a conviction from 2018 for possession of a knife.

"I have no option but to impose on you a custodial sentence.”

Rae was jailed for 20 months, backdated to May 7; he will also be the subject of a supervised release order for nine months after he is released.