'Rapper' jailed for burglaries

A rapper from Teesside, who turned back to drugs when his bid for fame failed, has been jailed for six years.

Duane Humphreys, 24, made it through to the last nine in this year's £90,000 prize Music Of Black Origin (Mobo) national contest.

Teesside Crown Court heard on Tuesday how Humphreys was said to have been the star performer at his local heats at the Jumpin Jacks club in central Middlesbrough.

But his disappointment in the finals and coupled with the end of his relationship with his girlfriend drove him to crack cocaine, the court was told.

Hypodermic needle

Humphreys said he was under the influence of cocaine when he carried out 10 house burglaries in Darlington and Stockton over a few weeks.

But when he was under arrest at Stockton police station he overpowered a woman custody officer assistant and terrified her with untrue claims that he was holding a hypodermic needle which he would ram into her neck.

Prosecutor Dan Cordey said the woman, Kelly Mylan, managed to alert two policemen who overpowered him but she was left shocked and upset by the incident.

Humphreys, from Campbell Court, Stockton, wrote down two of his raps which Judge Les Spittle read before sentencing him.

He was jailed for six years, including 18 months recall from his last sentence, after he pleaded guilty to four burglaries with six taken into consideration, and attempted escape in July and August.