AMount Gambier Magistrate has warned there will be increased vigilance around the possession of knives in the community after recent tragedies in Sydney.


Six people were killed in a stabbing at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre last Saturday and a teenager was arrested after allegedly stabbing a religious leader at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on Monday night.


The local warning came as Sean Anthony John Irvine, 40, appeared in the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court on Tuesday in front of Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos and pleaded guilty to carrying an offensive weapon.


In sentencing, Magistrate Kossiavelos said possessing knives in public in the Limestone Coast community is forbidden “to say the least”.


“It’s going to be a case of more vigilance and the authorities making sure that any knife on any person is going to be looked at in a suspicious way,” she said.


“There is no lawful excuse to carry a knife in public.”


Mr Irvine was convicted, received a 12 month good behaviour bond and was forced to forfeit the knife in question.