A MAN who threatened to smash the windows of his wife’s house and set fire to it is behind bars.

Johnathon Wilkinson breached a domestic violence protection order when he attended his wife’s house shortly after midnight on Monday (May 4), magistrates in Newton Aycliffe heard.

Prosecutor Joanne Hesse said Wilkinson, of Hewitson Road South, Darlington, told a private security officer at the house that he was going to smash the windows and set fire to the property because “that is what she (his wife) deserves.”

Mrs Hesse the court his wife, who was not at the house at the time, had employed the security officer to protect her home following a breakdown in their relationship.

She said: “He (the security officer) describes the defendant during the incident as being very angry and believes had he not been there, then he would have carried out the threat.”

In a victim impact statement read out in court, his wife said: “I am scared to be alone in my home. I am having to sleep out. I have lost my job through all of this.”

Wilkinson, who represented himself in court, said he would not have carried out the threats.

“I would never harm her,” he said. “I understand that she would have thought the threats were real.”

The 34-year-old admitted breaching a domestic violence protection order and was sent to prison for 28 days.

He also admitted threatening to damage or destroy property and possession of the Class A drug, cocaine.

Magistrates adjourned sentencing to allow the Probation Service to prepare a pre-sentence report and remanded Wilkinson in custody.