Drug dealer's suspended sentence branded a 'monumental disgrace' by families whose lives were 'made a misery'

Angry residents of a Thornaby estate have expressed “outrage” at the suspended sentence handed down to a 20-year-old local drug dealer.

Rory Knox, of Staindale Road, was given a second chance after a judge at Teesside Crown Court was told he had turned his life around.

Knox was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years after admitting possession of Class A and B drugs with intent to supply and breach of a suspended sentence.

When police searched his home they found crack cocaine, skunk cannabis and two mobile phones with text messages from addicts, the court heard.

The young dealer kept wraps of cocaine in plastic eggs, and he had more cannabis in his bedroom and £290 in cash.

Lewis Kerr, defending, said that with the support of the Probation Service and his family Knox had put drugs behind him.

Recorder Felicity Davies told Knox at last Friday’s hearing that when she first read the case papers she had no doubt that she would be sending him to prison for years.

But after hearing of his work with the Probation Service she suspended his sentence, saying she was giving him “a very significant chance”.

He was also given 18 months supervision, 240 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge.

But the sentence has been met with anger from Thornaby residents and a local councillor.

A spokesperson for the Dales Residents Association described the suspended sentence as “an absolute disgrace and an insult to the positive work of the police, Stockton Council anti-social behaviour team and Thirteen and a major blow to the local community”.

He added: “This monumental disgrace must be worthy of at least an enquiry.”

Steve Walmsley

Thornaby independent councillor Steve Walmsley described the case as “an absolute farce” and said “residents on the estate are outraged”.

He added: “Residents on a brilliant Thornaby estate whose lives have been made a misery for so long are now faced with the prospect of this criminal peddler of poison being left at large.”

The court had heard that on the day of the police raid, February 25 last year, Knox was on bail for a separate offence for possession of Class B drugs with intent to supply.

Knox was handed a suspended sentence last April for that offence after mobile phones showed he had been dealing in diazepam and temazepam tablets which his mother Linda Knox was stealing from a chemist’s where she worked.

Last April, Linda Knox, also of Staindale Road, was given a 22-week jail sentence, suspended for 18 months with 12 months supervision, after she pleaded guilty to two charges of theft and supplying controlled Class C drugs.