SAMURAI sword-carrying Shaun Burton is today paying the price for having the weapon on the streets of Ipswich.

SAMURAI sword-carrying Shaun Burton is today paying the price for having the weapon on the streets of Ipswich.

The 31-year-old was sentenced to a six-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, by Ipswich magistrates after admitting being in possession of the weapon on August 7.

Burton, of Dandalan Close, was given a supervision order and undertake 100 hours unpaid work.

He pleaded guilty at a previous hearing where magistrates heard that police were told about a man “walking strangely”.

The Suffolk Constabulary police helicopter was dispatched above the town to find him.

Shelley Lapatrie representing Burton told the court that he had bought the sword because he was a collector of Japanese memorabilia.

On his way home he walked along Vernon Street and saw his former partner and her daughter and he showed them the sword.

However, someone contacted the police and Burton was later arrested.

At the time, Andrea Reynolds prosecuting said: “Plainly a weapon of this sort should not be in the public domain.

“It was not wielded in a dangerous fashion but it was shown in the streets."

At the same hearing last month Burton was also ordered to pay �30 compensation for criminal damage to a letter box during a separate incident.