A masseur was found with a knife in his bag when he was arrested over a sexual assault allegation, for which he was later acquitted.

Aaron Golding was accused of sexually assaulting a client during a massage, a court heard.

He was cleared of this charge at trial, but he was carrying a blade when he was arrested in Asda in Poole, said prosecution barrister Kate Davies.

Appearing at Bournemouth Crown Court on Tuesday, he stood to be sentenced for possessing a bladed article in a public place, to which he previously pleaded guilty. 

Mitigating, Richard Martin said Golding has a four-year-old son and that his wife has been diagnosed with unstable personality disorder.

He said Golding, 29, had his ‘hands full’ and that his mother, with whom he is living, has recently been diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis is ‘not good’.

Mr Martin said: “The long and short of it is this is a man who has a number of caring responsibilities.”

He added: “He is somebody who will benefit from the rehabilitation process.”

Judge Robert Pawson refused the defendant’s claim that he had forgotten the blade was in his bag in June 2022 and that he had put it in there to ‘keep it out of harm's way’.

Addressing Golding, Judge Pawson referenced the ongoing trial over the alleged murder of Cameron Hamilton, after he was stabbed to death in Bournemouth town centre.

“That is the reason it is taken so seriously,” Judge Pawson said.

The judge said there was ‘no suggestion of any illegal purpose’ for the knife and that Golding had ‘entered a guilty plea at the first available opportunity’.

However, he said: “One might ask … what the real reason was for you having that knife in your bag for a period of about five months.

“There is no justification for someone having a knife like that in their bag.”

Judge Pawson concluded that Golding had ‘reasonably strong personal mitigation’ and that there ‘is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation’.

Golding, of Hawkwood Drive in Poole, was sentenced to four months imprisonment, which has been suspended for one year.

He must do 20 days of rehabilitation activity requirement days and 100 hours of unpaid work.

The judge also ordered forfeiture and destruction of the seized blade.