A father who threatened a man with a Gurkha knife has walked free from court.

Michael Milne, 31, went to the house in Jarrow, Tyneside, after his seven-year-old daughter said she that had been threatened by the man.

Milne told the householder that he would kill him and said he had gone there to see "how he would like it", before pulling out the knife.

Paul Curran, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: "He knocked on the door and, when it was answered, he took hold of him with his left hand, while threatening him with a Gurkha knife with the other.

"He said, 'threaten my bairns again and I will kill you'. The householder was terrified."

Roger Elsey, mitigating, said Milne had been suffering from a mental illness for some time and his weekly medication would have been wearing off at the time of the attack.

Judge Simon Bournearton said the public, as well as Milne, would benefit more from a sentence of community rehabilitation rather than prison.

He said: "No matter what level of provocation, anyone who takes a knife - and in this case a significant knife - and threatens people with it, as you did, can only expect a sentence of custody.

"But you are a man who has unfortunately been having to cope with this illness for a number of years, and I wish to point out that people with a similar condition do not have as low a level of offending as you have. Neither you nor the public would benefit from you having to serve a short sentence of custody."

Milne, of Lulworth Avenue, Jarrow, pleaded guilty to affray at an earlier hearing.

He was sentenced to a two-year community rehabilitation order