A BRIXHAM man has been acquitted of drunkenly assaulting a teenager with a knife.

Mark Thompson, 36, walked away from Exeter Crown Court a free man following a three-day trial.

The jury took less than an hour to find him not guilty of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two lesser counts of assault by beating.

The trial had been told by the prosecution that Thompson, of Overgang, pulled a nine-inch kitchen knife on the youth and told him 'Go on, be a man'.

It was alleged the two scuffled when the younger male, who cannot be named, tried to stop an argument between Thompson and a woman at her address.

Thompson did not deny there had been an argument or that he had smashed a mirror at the address, but said the youth had started the fight by making threats and pulling the knife.

The defendant admitted that earlier that day, known as Trawler Race Day in the town, he had been drinking in pubs.

He said the argument with the woman had started when she spat at him, not because he was being abusive.

It was at this stage that he picked up the mirror and smashed it, triggering the scuffle with the youth.

The teenager suffered cuts to his palm, neck and arm in the fight in June last year.

Thompson was also accused of headbutting and punching a second teenage male who held him in a bear hug.

He denied the claim.

When the foreman of the jury announced not guilty verdicts on each of the charges Thompson held his head in his hands and cried.