Don’t carry a blade around in public in the UK, especially if you have a long rap sheet.
It sounds kind of bizarre—like some grotesque police overreach, perhaps, or “tough on crime” gone too far—when you just read the headlines. A man in Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England was arrested for carrying a six-inch Zelda Master Sword replica in public. Police spotted him and arrested him and he was sentenced to four months prison time and a £154 (or about $195) fine. Important to note that this wasn’t just a prop. The blade was sharp.
The man in question is Anthony Bray, pictured below via the Warwickshire Police. You can also read the police report here.
Anthony Bray
Via the police report:
Bray approached officers with the item in his hand visible, at which point he was arrested as he was carrying a bladed article.
Bray claimed that the sword was a “fidget” – something to keep his hands busy. He had bought it online as a fidget toy.
Officers tried to explain to Bray that, despite its intended purpose, it was in fact a sharply pointed item which could be used as a weapon and might put others in fear of it being used against them.
He was also carrying it openly in Nuneaton town centre.
Sgt Spellman of the Patrol Investigations Unit said “We take a zero tolerance to bladed articles in public, and Bray has fallen afoul of this.
“It is possible to find fidget toys that aren’t six-inch blades. It is possible not to walk down the street holding them out in front of you.
“With a bit more self-awareness, Bray could have avoided contact with us completely.”
Still, a lot of people find the prison sentence overblown. Here in the US, you can walk around with assault rifles legally. I own six or seven swords and while I don’t walk around with them in public often, I have on some occasions such as Halloween. But this is a different country with different laws.
What’s missing from every report about this I could find, and what is so crucial to understanding this story, however is that Anthony Bray is a repeat offender with a long rap sheet and numerous prison sentences, several of which were for burglary including serial burglary. In 2011, Bray was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison after getting “three strikes” for burgling residences. But his run-ins with the law go back to 1989 and he was in court numerous times throughout the 90s as well.
This has not been reported in IGN, PC Gamer, Eurogamer or The Guardian or any other outlet I could find, all of which ran rather similar versions of this story without the relevant context, though PC Gamer mentioned the Midlands region’s knife violence problems (see below for more on that).
These publications and numerous others describe him as a “Legend of Zelda fan” though there is no evidence to support this. There is, however, lots of evidence that he’s a repeat criminal offender responsible for numerous acts of petty theft and burglary. He’s likely well-known by the police given his decades of criminal activity. The police were probably not thrilled to see someone with this history and reputation walking around brandishing a knife, even if it’s a Zelda replica.
The last wrinkle to this story is the very real problem with knife violence in the UK. Warwickshire is in the Midlands where knife violence is higher than any other region, higher even than in London. There were 5,234 knife offenses in the region in 2023 alone including a number of murders. Perhaps it is through this lens that we should view the arrest and prison sentence of Anthony Bray.
If you’re looking for a good TV show that takes place in the region, I have two recommendations: The absolutely wonderful, devastating Happy Valley and the not-as-good-but-still-excellent Line Of Duty. Click those links for my reviews of each.