A DRUNKEN man who was spotted stumbling around a North East town without any shoes on and armed with a knife has been given a suspended sentence.

A council worker spotted Stephen Speight walking along the street carrying a knife and watched him before calling the police.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court how a group of young men and some young children were seen to run away from the defendant as he wandered around in the early morning on June 10 this year.

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He said: "The defendant was seen to be passing the knife between his hands, he was also described as stumbling into a fence.

"Another male, who has never been identified, picked up the knife after Speight dropped it and handed it to the council worker, who kept it until the police arrived."

The 56-year-old was arrested and searched by the officers who found a 'push dagger' in a sheath on a string around his neck and recovered the butterfly knife.

Mr Dryden said the defendant had previous offences, including assaulting a police officer, but they were all of 'some age' and there was no evidence that he was brandishing the first knife around.

Speight, of Sydney Close, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article.

Nigel Soppitt, in mitigation, said his client had pleaded guilty to two serious offences but had very little recollection of how he came into possession of the two weapons.

He said: "He was extremely intoxicated, which can be an aggravating feature rather than a mitigating feature, he was clearly bumbling around on that day with these very serious looking weapons."

Mr Soppitt said Speight had been drinking heavily while 'consoling a friend' and had taken some drugs.

Judge Chris Smith sentenced him to six months prison, suspended for 18 months. He said: "Both of knives are nasty and capable of causing serious injury and you were intoxicated.

"If I thought for a moment you had been brandishing these rather than stumbling around drunk, you would have to go to prison."

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