Philip Keenan jailed as Teesside judge rejects account of how he had knife in Hartlepool street

Police stopped and searched intoxicated Philip Keenan, 45, in the Belk Street and Cameron Road area of town after a resident reported seeing somebody acting suspiciously.

Teesside Crown Court heard the officers retrieved a black handled knife from the waistband of Keenan’s trousers.

He told police he had taken been to a party the previous night and had taken the knife off some young people.

But the judge said he did not believe Keenan as he was unable to provide any more details.

Less than two weeks earlier, he had been given a community order by the courts for burgling an unoccupied flat with a woman.

Keenan pleaded guilty to possession of an bladed article in public for the knife offence on March 23.

It was his seventh weapons conviction including four for carrying knives.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Keenan had recently left prison with nowhere to live.

Despite his record, Mr Constantine said Keenan was “highly motivated” to change and wants to use his experience to help steer others away from crime.

"He wants to put something back into society on a positive level,” he said.

Sentencing the defendant to eight months in jail, Judge Richard Bennett said: “It’s not clear what you were doing but you were up to something.”

He added: “It seems to me you had that knife in your possession knowingly and you went out that night although you did not use it.”