A STONE dealer living alone in an isolated moorland farmhouse was justified in grabbing a large kitchen knife and plunging it into the stomach of one of three attackers, a judge said yesterday.

Last October, three criminals from Middlesbrough drove to Wind Hill Farm, the home of stone and timber dealer Michael Fenby, off the A171, close to the Flask Inn, at Whitby, North Yorkshire, York Crown Court heard.

They were Raymond Bennett, 48, who had just served ten years of a 17-year jail sentence for attempting to murder a man in a Middlesbrough off-licence, by shooting him in the back during a robbery, his 19-year-old nephew, convicted burglar Dean Bennett, and 27-year-old strongman Paul Warwick.

All three admitted conspiracy to steal and violent disorder.

Raymond Bennett, of Ellis Gardens, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, was jailed for nine years. Dean Bennett, of no fixed address, was given a seven-year sentence in a young offenders' institution, and Warwick, of Ingram Road, also Middlesbrough, was jailed for seven years.

The court heard from Julian Goose, prosecuting, that Mr Fenby grabbed a 14-in knife from a kitchen worktop and stuck it 5in into the stomach of Dean Bennett.

"He was entirely justified in doing what he did," said Recorder Geoffrey Marson. "Who knows what might have happened to him."

Mr Goose said that the night before the raid, Raymond Bennett called on Mr Fenby at his moorland farmhouse to ask about buying stone.

The following night, Dean Bennett knocked at the dealer's door and also spoke of buying stone.

He then returned to the car outside pretending to get instructions.

Mr Fenby became suspicous and jotted down the car's registration number as Warwick and the other two returned.

Mr Goose said the raiders pushed Mr Fenby into his home and began to hit him around the face and body, before their victim reached for the knife and lunged.

He said: "Realising they had met their match, the three attackers ran off and escaped in their car.

"Mr Fenby phoned the police who caught the offenders as they drove into Whitby."