A REPEAT offender described as being 'no stranger to violence' has been jailed for carrying a weapon which was eventually used to attack him in a street scrap.

Connor McKnight was found topless and with blood dripping down his head when he was arrested by police for possessing a baseball bat in Ardrossan earlier this year.

The 29-year-old was jailed at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on October 1 after he admitting a charge of having unlawful possession of the item.

The incident took place on June 1, in the Barrie Terrace area of Ardrossan, procurator fiscal depute Jaide Podlesny told the court.

The hearing was told that witnesses became aware of an argument breaking out on the residential street between McKnight and a group of three males.

McKnight was said to have attended a nearby property where he retrieved a baseball bat before heading back outside.

The prosecutor said he then charged towards the men, pointing the bat towards them and shouting.

However, matters quickly turned and it was McKnight himself who became the victim of an assault involving his own weapon being taken from him and used against him.

Police officers found McKnight near the entrance to his then home with no top on - and with blood streaming from his head.

Officers then arrested McKnight, who is now described as a prisoner at HMP Kilmarnock, and took him to Crosshouse Hospital where his injuries were seen to.

After being cautioned and charged, he told police that he was acting in self-defence.

CCTV footage of the incident was shown to the court, with Ms Podlesny adding that enquiries are ongoing to trace the other males said to have assaulted McKnight.

McKnight's solicitor stated it was clear that it was his client who had brought the weapon out.

He added: "Quite quickly he becomes the victim of an assault by a number of other males who take the bat from him and he is struck while on the ground.

"There had been a prior incident that day, there was a confrontation between McKnight and males.

"I was told that the males arrived at the locus in a red vehicle. McKnight saw that and that caused him to come out with the bat.

"Matters quickly deteriorated and he was assaulted with the very weapon he brought from his house. He realises the error of his ways from doing what he did. He has come out worse for it."

The solicitor added that McKnight has a very difficult background and his life "went into a spiral" as a result of this.

He said that McKnight had become involved in the use of drink and then drugs and is "no stranger to possession of weapons and violence".

"That is how his life has been categorised over the last few years," he said.

Sheriff Murdoch Mactaggart said there was no appropriate alternative to custody in the case.

McKnight was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, backdated to his initial remand on June 3.