A NEW father who saw his two-week-old baby for the first time at court was jailed for eight months yesterday.

Mark Wright had not seen the infant before he appeared at Teesside Crown Court for trial on Tuesday, because he had been remanded in custody.

But yesterday, as Wright, 28, of Acclom Street, Hartlepool, was to be sentenced for an offence of affray his barrister Rod Hunt told the court Wright had seen the child during a closed visit at the court.

Wright had denied aggravated burglary and the jury acquitted him of that charge. Instead he admitted affray following the incident in July.

Judge Peter Bowers jailed him for eight months.

Wright had told the court he went to the house of a woman in Hartlepool where he bought three bags of drugs, but when he returned home he discovered the drug was really pepper.

The prosecution had alleged that Wright and another man had gone along to the house wearing balaclavas and brandishing kitchen knives to demand money.

Wright said he was frustrated and went back to the house to confront the people there, but he said there was no knife, and he went alone.