Stabbed man's son in court for carrying knife (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Stabbed man's son in court for carrying knife

9:00am Saturday 8th September 2012 in News By Neil Hunter

THE son of a notorious gangster, who was stabbed to death in a fight, was spared jail yesterday after he was arrested in possession of a knife.

Peter Duffy, 30 – whose father, Lee Duffy, was an enforcer for gangs in Middlesbrough – was caught with a carpet knife blade when police arrested him on suspicion of burglary in South Bank.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said that Duffy was seen running from a property in South Bank, at 8.15pm on May 1.

He was chased by a police officer and found on a garage roof in Strauss Road. He dropped down and was arrested, when he was found to be in possession of a carpet knife with a broken blade.

Graham Brown, mitigating, told Teesside Crown Court that Duffy had been traumatised by his father’s violent death.

He said that the burglary charge and another for abstracting electricity were later dropped, and Duffy was left with the offence of possession of a bladed article, which carries a maximum sentence of six months in magistrates court.

Mr Brown added that Duffy lived with his partner and their young child, and when he heard a noise outside he ran from the house, forgetting that he had a broken blade in his pocket.

Judge Michael Taylor told Duffy that there was a risk to the public when a person who had used violence in the past was out on the street with a knife.

The judge added: “Knife crime is rife, but I accept that the Crown accepts that you were not guilty of burglary and abstracting electricity.

“I think this does cross the custody threshold, but I am not going to send you to prison today. I have thought long and hard what to do.”

Duffy, of Ringwood Road, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months with supervision after he pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article.

Amateur boxer Lee Duffy was fatally stabbed at the age of 26 in a brawl in Middlesbrough in 1991. His former friend, David Allison, was cleared of his murder when a jury accepted he acted in self-defence