Gillian Boyle was armed with a hammer and Carl Rankin had a knife at a store on Linthorpe Road before they challenged people in Albert Park
Teesside Crown Court
A pregnant woman and her partner who ran amok at a Teesside shop and park have been given a chance to prove they can raise a child.
Carl Rankin and Gillian Boyle challenged people to fight in Middlesbrough’s Albert Park in a bid for revenge, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.
Trouble erupted in the One Stop Shop on Linthorpe Road at about 3.30pm on December 10 last year.
Boyle, 39, was waving a small hammer and carrying an ornamental cat.
Trouble spilled out of the shop and Rankin, 29, was seen in the park holding a kitchen knife and running at another man, said prosecutor Rachel Masters.
A judge watched CCTV of the pair in and out of the shop, with Boyle “in a very angry state”.
A security officer at the park heard the commotion and saw the couple.
He was concerned at what could have happened at a time when young families and elderly people were in the park.
The group dispersed when the police arrived at the scene. The two were arrested nearby.
Boyle said she was using the hammer to fix a door at home when her partner Rankin came home with his head bleeding.
She said they went out to find the people who assaulted him, thought they’d found the culprits in the shop, and got angry that they were laughed at.
Boyle and Rankin, of Ayresome Street, Middlesbrough, each admitted a charge of possessing an offensive weapon.
Both had criminal records, Rankin’s with 67 offences.
Andrew Turton, defending, said they were disappointed in themselves and regretted their impulsive behaviour after Rankin was beaten up.
He said Rankin had a knife because he thought one of his assailants had a knife.
Mr Turton said: “Nobody was injured, no damage was caused to the shop, when that could have happened.
“There’s a lot of posturing and a lot of coming and going between the two factions.
“It’s amongst people who know each other. Nobody came to any harm.”
He said the pair were expecting a baby in June and were both in drug treatment.
“They are out to prove that they are fit and proper persons to be able to parent this child,” added Mr Turton. “They’re worth a further chance.”
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told them: “In broad daylight, there you are, taking out your argument in the street.
“Your thought was only for your own selfish desire to get revenge.”
But he said he was impressed by the couple’s determination to clean up, and hoped his sentence would make them think about the future.
He gave each a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years with a year’s supervision.
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