A STEEPLEJACK who is today banned from every pub and club in Ipswich claimed he was the victim of a love affair that backfired after being caught with a knife.

A STEEPLEJACK who is today banned from every pub and club in Ipswich claimed he was the victim of a love affair that backfired after being caught with a knife.

Stephen Good, of Cobbold Street, Ipswich, narrowly escaped prison after admitting to possessing a knife in the town centre.

The 44-year-old said the knife must have been planted in his jacket by the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair or the woman herself.

Firearms officers arrested Good after he was seen holding the 5in kitchen knife just after midnight on May 4.

Prosecutor Emma Lister told South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court that the police were alerted by a Christian pastor who had been helping distressed people in the town centre.

She said: “Good was stopped by a firearms unit in Upper Brook Street and asked if he had anything on him.

“He replied that he had a knife. He was searched and it was located in an inside pocket of his jacket.

“He was having an affair with a woman. Around two weeks ago, he left his jacket at hers. He said she or her husband must have put it there.”

Mitigating, Mark Holt said Good returned to the woman's house to pick up the jacket on the night of the incident and later felt the knife stabbing into his chest.

Holt added: “He took it out and said 'what's this?'. The pastor saw it.

“His marriage ended four years ago and things went a bit wrong. That's why he only has convictions from 2005 onwards.”

Judge David Cooper said he considered custody, but instead gave Good a 12-week prison sentence suspended for a year.

He also banned Good from all pubs and clubs in Ipswich for six months and ordered for the knife to be destroyed.

Judge Cooper said: “If you carry a knife, you deserve to go to prison. I don't care what excuse you come up with because reading the newspapers you hear everyday of people getting stabbed over nothing. Try to be sensible.”