A FATHER and son walked free from court yesterday after being cleared of attacking a teenager with a stun gun and blackmailing his stepfather.

Pub boss Trevor Thirlwall, 53, and his son, nightclub doorman Trevor Thirlwall junior, 30, were cleared of all charges by a jury at Teesside Crown Court in a case which descended into the "murky world" of drugs and violence.

Christopher Attwooll, prosecuting, told the court that the pair had confronted then 16-year-old Robert Phillips at The Commercial pub in South Bank, Middlesbrough, in a row over drugs.

It was alleged that he was grabbed by the throat by Thirlwall junior and attacked with an electronic stun gun.

Phillips claimed he was told he would have his legs broken and also received a "smack in the mouth".

Later he told police he was singled out because he had not sold enough drugs for the Thirlwalls.

Phillips' stepfather and self-proclaimed drugs dealer Mark Devonport also claimed Thirwall junior, of Southwark, London, demanded £10,000 from him after he ran up debts to the Thirlwalls and then threatened to chop off his wife's fingers if he did not pay.

Defence counsel Dan Cordy said the charges could have been fabricated because of a family grudge in a case based on "innuendo and smear".

Thirlwall senior, of Granville Road, Middlesbrough, had given evidence in a court case against a relative of Mark Devonport's and he believed the family were seeking revenge.

He said that, as owner of the Commercial, he was approached by Devonport, who offered to sell drugs on the premises and give him a cut of the profits.

He said he needed that like a "hole in the head" and later decided to bar him from the pub.

Later he received several anonymous telephone threats, one stating that the pub would be fire bombed.

Both Thirlwalls denied falsely imprisoning Robert Phillips and assaulting him between October 1 and November 8 last year and blackmailing his stepfather on November 25.

Thirwall junior, who described himself as a front of house manager at the exclusive Wellington club in Kensington, West London, was last year at the centre of a separate court case involving Chelsea footballer John Terry, who was cleared of glassing him in the face outside the London venue.