A TEENAGE killer was last night starting six years behind bars for knifing a young father to death in a gang fight.

John Sargeant, 18, stabbed 23-year-old Craig Stephenson in the heart.

Mr Stephenson and a gang of up to 30 friends - some armed with baseball bats, sticks bottles and one with CS spray - had gathered outside the home of Craig Conway after an earlier disagreement.

It is thought the row - as Conway and friends were drinking in their front garden - centred on him not being welcome after moving on to the Grove Hill estate from neighbouring Pallister Park.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Mr Stephenson brandished a "fearsome-looking" combat knife before Conway and Sargeant armed themselves with kitchen knives.

Sargeant was said to have become frightened during a stand-off and lunged forward, plunging the knife through Mr Stephenson's rib-cage and lung and into his heart.

Conway, 21, tried in vain to resuscitate Mr Stephenson, who was pronounced dead when he arrived at hospital, while members of the gang attacked his home.

Sargeant, of Orpington Road, Middlesbrough, admitted manslaughter.

Conway, of Keith Road, Middlesbrough, admitted possessing an offensive weapon. He was ordered to do 300 hours' community work, put on a curfew for six months and given two years' supervision.

Judge Peter Fox, QC, said the weapon carried by Mr Stephenson was "ferocious" and said: "These things should not be permitted to be sold."

Defence barristers Peter Makepeace, for Conway, and Tim Roberts QC, for Sargeant, said neither of the men had gone looking for trouble on the night of the killing, on April 21.