A young man led into a life of crime by his drug-addict parents was spared from prison despite being convicted of knife possession on Friday.

Puisne Justice Carlisle Greaves sympathised with Marekco Ratteray over his rocky upbringing, and said he wanted to give him a chance to raise his own young son properly.

Ratteray, 24, was found in possession of a folding knife in Par-la-Ville Park, Hamilton, last September when Police arrested him over an alleged assault a week before.

He was charged with wounding Shawn Bascome, 35, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm and possession of the knife during that incident, as well as having it on him when he was arrested.

He was acquitted of assault and weapon possession relating to the first incident by a jury after a trial. He had argued that he acted in self defence, using a weapon carried for work purposes.

However, he was found guilty of being in possession of the knife on the occasion of his arrest.

At Ratteray's sentencing, Crown counsel Robert Welling said the mandatory minimum sentence for possession of a knife in public is five years upon conviction at Supreme Court.

However, Ratteray's lawyer Rick Woolridge Jr. successfully argued that there were extenuating circumstances in this case. He pointed to a pre-sentence report explaining how Ratteray grew up in Government institutions as a result of his parents' criminal behaviour. He lost his father at a young age, and his mother is currently at the Co-Ed facility.

Mr. Woolridge pointed out that while Ratteray, of North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish, has previous convictions dating from his youth, he has been out of trouble since 2000. He has gained his GED certificate and aspires to be a computer technician, Mr. Woolridge told the court.

Accepting the argument about extenuating circumstances, Puisne Justice Carlisle Greaves noted how the report said Ratteray's parents used him to break through windows and steal from the age of just five or six years old, in order to fund their habits.

The judge said he found it "extraordinary" that the defendant managed to gain his GED despite this difficult background, and expressed hope his 15-month-old child would have a better childhood than he did.

"Justice should in this case be tempered by mercy," he said, sentencing Ratteray to a five year prison term suspended for five years, with three years of probation to run concurrently.

"Should you fail, you are going to jail," he warned. "Over the next three years, this sentence of imprisonment shall be hanging over your head like a bladed weapon."