Yeah, I think the way it must have happened is that he turned up at the college with his bags, in which were his RIF's, a kitchen knife, and his dirty washing etc. and somehow ended up speaking to the Support Worker, to whom he showed the BB guns and, like a proper penis, fired one against a wall. At which point fearing for her*/his/somebody's safety she informed the college admin staff who called the old bill (*even though she denied that, who knows?). I think we can deduce that he was upset, or he wouldn't be talking to the support worker, or firing a BB gun... probably.
The old bill turned up and wanted to get him off the premises so, even though they knew full well that carrying a kitchen knife inside a bag, within a holdall type bag, is not an offence, used it as the excuse to either arrest him, or perhaps threaten to arrest him if he didn't come along with them quietly. Something about the situation, be it him, his behaviour, the old bill, or maybe the Custody Sergeant, meant they decided they wanted to actually nick him - it may have been simply to hold him overnight to keep him away from the college or somebody there until he calmed down. They settled on adding the Manufacturing an RIF to the hopeless knife charge (Carrying an Object with a Blade or Point Longer than 3 Inches which is an offence which can only be heard in Magistrate's Court [you cannot elect for jury trial] so it's a good one to get someone in front of the mages where a nod and a wink is as good as a blind bat, say no more, say no more).
But that still doesn't answer my central concern... how the fuck did he get found guilty? The VCRA has holes you could drive a double decker bus full of gun toting arabs through. His solicitor ought to have told the CPS that he would indeed elect for jury trial on that offence because he was going NG all the way and would be calling several witnesses, at which point the CPS would have caved and dropped all charges. Unless there is more to the story we haven't been told. Somebody else's testimony perhaps, or the threat of dragging someone else into it...
