Marton man caught with a knife in Blackpool for the third time receives suspended sentence

Jerry Murray was most recently caught with a lock-knife in Blackpool after previously being caught with a Stanley knife in 2005 and a butterfly knife in 2002.Murray, 43, of Hathaway, Marton, pleaded guilty to possessing a lock-knife in public.He was sentenced to 146 days jail suspended for 18 months and ordered to pay £85 costs with £115 victims' surcharge by Blackpool magistrates who ordered the destruction of the knife.Presiding magistrate, Brian Horrocks, told him: "This is a serious offence. The reason we have suspended the sentence is we have taken into account the previous convictions were of some age and also the blade, as this is a very small knife."Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said police were called to Harcourt Road, Blackpool, on March 5 at 7.30pmWhen challenged by officers Murray kept putting his hands in his pockets and would not take them out.Witnesses pointed out that they had seen Murray drop a bag nearby. Officers retrieved it and found a lock-knife attached to it.When interviewed Murray said he had drunk up to nine cans, taken crack cocaine, painkillers and his medication of the heroin substitute Methadone and that was the last he could remember.Stephen Duffy, defending, said his client had bought the knife at a local shop and it had a blade of just one-and-a-half inches.Murray had used the knife for jobs such as mending his son's bike and cutting cable. He had not realised it was illegal for him to have that knife in public.Murray had been found in an intoxicated state at the side of the road and had never produced the knife from the bag in public.