A KNIFE-WIELDING yob who boasted about stabbing someone just so he could be locked up was granted his wish - even after he changed his mind.

David Standley was said to have "let his mouth run away" and made wild claims in interviews he had with a probation officer and a psychiatrist.

The 21-year-old was homeless at the time and thought his life was hopeless, so he wanted to have a spell in prison, Teesside Crown Court heard.

But his lawyer told the court that three months behind bars on remand had changed Standley's mind - and he pleaded with a judge to set him free.

Standley was instead jailed for 12 months and was told by Recorder Eric Elliott, QC: "People carrying knives in public places inevitably go to prison."

The court heard how Standley was caught on closed circuit television cameras in Redcar town centre at night with a kitchen knife with a 12-inch blade.

The pictures showed him pulling up the hood on his top to hide his face before confronting three males on Bath Lane near the Top Deck nightclub.

When he was due to be sentenced before Christmas, the judge adjourned the case because of "worrying disclosures" he made to a probation official.

A psychiatric report was commissioned, and Standley repeated the claim that he would have stabbed one of the males had the police not turned up.

His solicitor, Andrew White, described the claims as "bravado" and "hot air" and said his client had no intention of using the blade on May 30 last year.

Mr White said: "He says a number of things in the reports. He said a lot of things he didn't really mean. He says now quite clearly it was bravado.

"At that point in his life he actually wanted a custodial sentence. He did say he wanted to go to prison. He had been evicted and felt hopeless.

"I've explained to him that when you day things it is not often as simple as that just to rub back from them. He now sees how stupid it was."

Standley, of High Street, Redcar - who has previous convictions, but nothing for violence - admitted a charge of possessing a bladed article in public.

Mr White said Standley picked up the knife from the street after it was thrown from a window at his flat, but did not brandish it at anyone outside.

"This is a young man who has let his mouth run away with him and say daft things he didn't really mean . . . he is now thinking about things much more clearly."