A MAN who absent-mindedly left the house with a kitchen knife narrowly escaped prison today (Tuesday, June 25).

Mateusz Siminski was stopped by police investigating a disturbance in Clifton Road, Darlington, on Friday June 7.

He was searched and found to be carrying the five-and-a-half inch kitchen knife.

Siminski, 24, told Darlington Magistrates Court that he had been cooking whilst drunk.

Representing himself, he said: “I was at home and my cousin said I should come out. I had been cooking food and we left and I just put the knife in my pocket.

“It was my fault because I did not have to go out with the knife but I was drunk and do not know why I did it. I did not want to do anything wrong with it.”

Chair of the bench Nicholas Edger said: “This was a very serious offence and you could go to prison for possessing an article of this size in the street.

“You were drunk in a public place with a large knife in your possession and I am concerned that if you got into a fight you might have used it.”

Siminski, of Chatsworth Terrace, Darlington, was fined £130 and the knife was destroyed.