A FATHER and son walked free from court yesterday after being cleared of attacking a teenager with a stun-gun and blackmailing his stepfather.

Pub boss Trevor Thirlwall, 53, and his son, nightclub doorman Trevor Thirlwall junior, 30, were cleared of all charges by a jury at Teesside Crown Court in a case that was said to be involved in the murky world of drugs and violence.

Christopher Attwooll, prosecuting, said the pair had confronted Robert Phillips, then aged 16, at The Commercial pub, in South Bank, Middlesbrough, in a row over drugs.

It was alleged that he was grabbed by the throat by Mr Thirlwall junior and attacked with an electronic stun-gun.

The teenager said he was told he would have his legs broken and was hit in the mouth.

He was said to have told police he was singled out because he had not sold enough drugs for the Thirlwalls.

Robert Phillips' stepfather and self-proclaimed drugs dealer Mark Devonport also said Mr Thirlwall junior, of Southwark, London, demanded £10,000 after he ran up debts to the Thirlwalls, then threatened to chop off his wife's fingers if he did not pay.

Defence counsel Dan Cordy said the charges could have been fabricated because of a family grudge in a case based on innuendo and smear.

Mr Thirlwall senior, of Granville Road, Middlesbrough, had given evidence in a court case against a relative of Mark Devonport's, and he believed the family were seeking revenge.

He said that as owner of the Commercial, he was approached by Devonport, who offered to sell drugs on the premises and give him a cut of the profits.

He rejected the offer and later decided to bar him from the pub.

Later he received several anonymous telephone threats, one stating that the pub would be fire bombed.

Both Mr Thirlwall senior and his son denied falsely imprisoning Robert Phillips and assaulting him between October 1 and November 8 last year, and blackmailing his stepfather on November 25.

Mr Thirlwall junior, who described himself as a front of house manager at the Wellington Club, in Kensington, West London, was last year at the centre of a separate court case involving Chelsea footballer John Terry, who was cleared of glassing him in the face outside the London venue.