POLICE had to use CS gas to subdue a knife-wielding man after he had been locked out by his wife, a court was told yesterday.

Magistrates heard how mechanic Paul Dyson had refused to surrender the large kitchen knife he was brandishing when officers arrived at the home he shared with his bank clerk wife Amanda.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said Dyson, 30, who had been shouting abuse, had slammed a door so hard its glass had shattered.

He had then gone into the kitchen of the home in Woodfield Drive, Harrogate, where he armed himself with a knife.

The court was told he had ignored police orders to put the knife down and walked towards the officers, and was sprayed with CS gas when he again refused to surrender.

Dyson staggered backwards and dropped his weapon, and police forced him to the ground and arrested him.

Mr Butterworth said the argument started when Dyson went out and drank eight pints only to find himself locked out on his return.

When Dyson pleaded guilty to affray, his solicitor Geoffrey Rogers said he and his wife had reconciled their differences as soon as police released him and there had been no further problems in the 11 days since.

Mr Rogers said it had been Dyson who called the police when he felt things were getting out of control.

He felt it would be safer if he was out of the way and that was why he picked up the knife. And because he was shouting so loudly he had not heard the police telling him to drop it.

Harrogate magistrates conditionally discharged Dyson for a year and ordered him to pay £50 costs.