Son pepper sprayed dad during fight in Sunderland house
A fight between a father and son saw the police called after pepper spray was used. The 23-year-old said he had been given it by a friend because he “used to get scared walking home”.
A Sunderland man fired decade-old pepper spray into his dad’s face after they fought and he was grabbed by him, a court heard.
Nathan Laws, 23, squirted noxious PAVA - a favoured defensive weapon of police – during an incident at a house in South Hylton earlier this year.
In doing so Laws, of Gartland Road, Hastings Hill, caused several people present to splutter into coughs, prosecutor Glenda Beck said.
He handed the canister to police called to the scene and told them he was given it by a friend when he was 13 years old because he “used to get scared walking home”.
Magistrates in South Tyneside ordered it be forfeited and destroyed after Laws pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of a noxious liquid.
Mrs Beck told the hearing: “Police attended King Edward Road following reports of someone being sprayed by PAVA spray.
“When they arrived, and due to the experience of one of the officers, they knew what was in the air. Several people were inside coughing.
“The officer spoke to one of those there, who made a disclosure that the defendant had pulled out a pepper spray and sprayed him in the face upstairs.
“The defendant was asked where the spray was, and he took it out of his jacket pocket and handed it to an officer.
“He said that he’d had a fight with his father and had sprayed him with his pepper spray.
“He said that he had been in possession of the can since the age of 13. He said he used to get scared walking home.
“The item was forensically tested and that showed it was as the charge describes.”
The court was told Laws has no previous convictions.
Annie Dixon, defending, said: “He accepts he was in possession of a pepper spray and accepted that at a police station when interviewed.
“He was given the spray when he was a child by a friend of a friend and hadn’t realised it was a prohibited item.
“I suggest that his age may have played a part in his lack of understanding of that.
“His father had grabbed hold of him during an argument and the pepper spray had gone off.”
Magistrates fined Laws £120, with £85 court costs and a £48 victim surcharge.