A convicted robber claimed his human rights were breached when he was recalled to jail for carrying a knife in the street while high on drugs.

Steven Wesley Johnston, 28, of Willaston, was jailed for a total of three years and 11 months in May last year after being convicted of robbery and unlawful wounding.

He had robbed the Spar shop in Willaston at knife point, wounded a man with a glass in Sugar Sugar nightclub and was also found guilty by a jury of robbing a teenager in the street.

Mr Johnston was released from jail on licence on January 12 this year, having served half his sentence, taking into account the time he had spent on remand.

But just three days later, his licence was revoked and the decision was made to send him back to prison.

The Department of Home Affairs said there was a clear breach of his licence conditions and that he posed a medium to high risk of harm to the general public.

On Sunday, January 14 Mr Johnston was arrested after being found heavily under the influence of intoxicants and seen to be shouting in the street with a knife.

It was alleged he had been involved in an altercation with someone who had received a stab wound.

Mr Johnston denied any involvement in the wounding incident.

He challenged his recall to custody, claiming his continued detention contravened the provisions of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But Deemster Andrew Corlett dismissed Mr Johnston’s application to challenge his recall.

In a judgment embargoed until the conclusion of the later criminal proceedings, he said he was satisfied that the DHA had reasonable grounds, based on the evidence, to recall the claimant.

Deemster Corlett said: ’Prima facie he appears to have been involved in a disturbing incident in a public street.

’He was arrested in circumstances strongly suggesting that he was under the influence of alcohol and/or illicit drugs.

’There were reasonable grounds for the department to reach the conclusion that the claimant had breached at least one of his licence conditions.’

He said it was perfectly permissible for the DHA to act on the information provided by police to probation officer Sherry Barrass who was under no duty to delve deeper into what appeared to be a credible and reliable source of information.

In March 29 this year, Mr Johnston was charged with a public order offence but the prosecution then offered no evidence against him in court and the criminal proceedings were dismissed.

He was released later that day.