This is North Devon -- A teenager threatened foster parents with a knife when they came to rescue a 13-year-old girl from his under age drinking party. Kieran Curtis armed himself with the steak knife during the confrontation outside his flat in Bideford and waved it within inches of the victims as they took shelter in their car. He dropped the weapon without using it and fled the scene but police tracked him down to a nearby graveyard and arrested him, Exeter Crown Court was told. Curtis escaped jail because he is now 20-years-old and in the time since the incident in April 2012 he has turned his life around with the help of the Amber Project at Chawleigh, near Chulmleigh. At the time he committed the offence he had just come out of council care and was living a chaotic lifestyle which had led him to be in trouble with the police twice in the preceding weeks. He has been out of trouble since going to the Amber Project. The Amber Project is a Christian-run residential rehabilitation centre which specialises in working with young people with a range of social problems. Its work was praised by another judge at Exeter Crown Court last week. Curtis, of Hostle Park, Ilfracombe, admitted having a bladed article in a public place and was jailed for six months, suspended for a year, and ordered him to receive supervision from the probation service to help him find work. He said: "The complainant was looking from his foster child, which he had a duty to do because she was only 13 and quite properly he went to get her. "When he reached your premises you were already drunk and he says you were not making much sense. I am sure that is right. You seem to have been somewhat frightened. You were drunk and took this knife and went outside with it. "It is an important feature of the case that you appear to have appreciated the danger at this stage and stopped because you lifted both arms and dropped the knife. You picked it up and ran off. You realised the seriousness of what you had done. "Carrying a knife in a public place is a very serious offence which ordinarily attracts an immediate prison sentence because knives are extremely dangerous and can inflict devastating injuries. "At the time you were 19 and a care leaver who has difficulties with attention deficit disorder. This was a momentary offence and is very different from those who take knives onto the streets. "It is greatly to your credit that you have been to the Amber Project and the work you have done to turn your life around should be acted on and assisted. An immediate custodial sentence would not serve that purpose." Mr Jonathan Barnes, for the prosecution, said Curtis was hosting a noisy party at his home in Buttgarden Street in Bideford on the night of April 2, 2012, where there were a number of girls drinking under age. One of these was a 13-year-old who rang her foster parents to ask for permission to stay out for the night. It was obvious from her call she was drunk so they went to find her and bring her home and tracked her down to Curtis' flat. The foster parents asked to see Curtis and went out to wait for the girl in their car but then saw him follow them out with a knife. Mr Barnes said: "The foster mother screamed and the foster father saw Curtis with a steak knife with a four or five inch blade. He had it about 12 inches from the closed driver's window and was swinging it around. "They heard people shouting for him to put the knife down and he eventually dropped it and ran away. Police found him in a churchyard nearby." He told officers he armed himself because he was scared and insisted he had not done anything wrong. Mr Nigel Wraith, for the defence, urged the judge to follow the recommendations of a probation pre-sentence report and give Curtis credit for his guilty plea and the work he has done at the Amber Project since the offence.
Reported by This is 8 hours ago.
This is North Devon -- A teenager threatened foster parents with a knife when they came to rescue a 13-year-old girl from his under age drinking party. Kieran Curtis armed himself with the steak knife during the confrontation outside his flat in Bideford and waved it within inches of the victims as they took shelter in their car. He dropped the weapon without using it and fled the scene but police tracked him down to a nearby graveyard and arrested him, Exeter Crown Court was told. Curtis escaped jail because he is now 20-years-old and in the time since the incident in April 2012 he has turned his life around with the help of the Amber Project at Chawleigh, near Chulmleigh. At the time he committed the offence he had just come out of council care and was living a chaotic lifestyle which had led him to be in trouble with the police twice in the preceding weeks. He has been out of trouble since going to the Amber Project. The Amber Project is a Christian-run residential rehabilitation centre which specialises in working with young people with a range of social problems. Its work was praised by another judge at Exeter Crown Court last week. Curtis, of Hostle Park, Ilfracombe, admitted having a bladed article in a public place and was jailed for six months, suspended for a year, and ordered him to receive supervision from the probation service to help him find work. He said: "The complainant was looking from his foster child, which he had a duty to do because she was only 13 and quite properly he went to get her. "When he reached your premises you were already drunk and he says you were not making much sense. I am sure that is right. You seem to have been somewhat frightened. You were drunk and took this knife and went outside with it. "It is an important feature of the case that you appear to have appreciated the danger at this stage and stopped because you lifted both arms and dropped the knife. You picked it up and ran off. You realised the seriousness of what you had done. "Carrying a knife in a public place is a very serious offence which ordinarily attracts an immediate prison sentence because knives are extremely dangerous and can inflict devastating injuries. "At the time you were 19 and a care leaver who has difficulties with attention deficit disorder. This was a momentary offence and is very different from those who take knives onto the streets. "It is greatly to your credit that you have been to the Amber Project and the work you have done to turn your life around should be acted on and assisted. An immediate custodial sentence would not serve that purpose." Mr Jonathan Barnes, for the prosecution, said Curtis was hosting a noisy party at his home in Buttgarden Street in Bideford on the night of April 2, 2012, where there were a number of girls drinking under age. One of these was a 13-year-old who rang her foster parents to ask for permission to stay out for the night. It was obvious from her call she was drunk so they went to find her and bring her home and tracked her down to Curtis' flat. The foster parents asked to see Curtis and went out to wait for the girl in their car but then saw him follow them out with a knife. Mr Barnes said: "The foster mother screamed and the foster father saw Curtis with a steak knife with a four or five inch blade. He had it about 12 inches from the closed driver's window and was swinging it around. "They heard people shouting for him to put the knife down and he eventually dropped it and ran away. Police found him in a churchyard nearby." He told officers he armed himself because he was scared and insisted he had not done anything wrong. Mr Nigel Wraith, for the defence, urged the judge to follow the recommendations of a probation pre-sentence report and give Curtis credit for his guilty plea and the work he has done at the Amber Project since the offence.
Reported by This is 8 hours ago.