A BLOODSTAINED teenager who repeatedly kneed a police officer when he was stopped for questioning has been jailed.

Brandon Rainbow was walking through the streets of Thornaby in the early hour of the morning of October 8 last year with a woman, who was also covered in blood.

When officers approached the 18-year-old he became agitated and aggressive when they were speaking to him, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said police were called to a suspected public order offence when they came across the pair on Stranton Street.

She said: "The officer advised the defendant that he was going to search him and at this point the defendant admitted having a hammer in his manbag, he was then cautioned and arrested.

"He shouted out about being arrested for the hammer and it was only then that he admitted that he did have knives in his bag.

"The defendant them became abusive, he was shouting and swearing at the officers, he was aggressive, and the officer thought he was going to be assaulted.

"So he took hold of the defendant's jacket to try and calm him down at which point the defendant continued to become aggressive, especially when the officer tried to retrieve his bag.

"The defendant struck the officer in his thigh with his knee and the officer told him to stop but he ignored that and kneed him further twice."

Rainbow, of Carisbrooke Avenue, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of a bladed article and assaulting an emergency worker.

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said his young client had a difficult upbringing.

"His pre-sentence report does make pretty grim reading," he said. "For someone so young to be given such terminology of a 76 per cent risk of re-offending, who has clearly had such a troubled life, has clearly made him significantly vulnerable at certain times in his life."

Judge Paul Watson QC jailed for seven months for each offence, to run concurrently, telling the defendant he had a 'frighteningly long record'.

He said: "People need to learn that those who go out in the streets armed with knives are not going to find sympathy in court."