A GUNMAN who racially abused and threatened to shoot two young brothers is starting a four-year prison sentence.

Christopher Jones flipped when the children were playing cricket in a back alley near his home in Stockton.

He went out into the street with a Dirty Harry-style revolver – a pellet-firing air weapon - and pointed it at the boys.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he yelled at the ten- and 16-year-olds: "You black c****, I'm going to kill you."

Closed circuit television pictures show Jones then following them into their back yard and waiting at their kitchen door.

After his arrest, he told police he had been drinking during the day, and felt "some kind of road rage" when he went into the street, but insisted he had no intention of firing the gun.

His lawyer, Alex Bousfield, said the 49-year-old factory manager was "mortified" by what he had done.

"Clearly, that weapon is capable of causing public terror, and no doubt it did on this occasion," said Mr Bousfield.

"He has never considered himself to be racist in the past, but accepts what he said was."

Judge Sean Morris described the weapon as "fearsome-looking" and said: "It looks far more dangerous than it actually is. It looks like something from a Dirty Harry movie."

He told the father-of-two: "For whatever reason, heaven knows, you came into possession of what is, in fact, an air weapon, but it looks like a terrifyingly real revolver.

"Anyone being confronted with that, especially in today's climate of gun crime, would have been absolutely terrified.

"I can't think of any reason anybody would want an air weapon that looks like the real thing.

"The public need to know anybody who brandishes any firearm and points it at people has to go away. It has got to stop."

Jones, of Edward Street, Stockton, pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated fear or provocation of violence and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear on April 28.

The boys' father said in a statement: "I can't tolerate this behaviour in the neighbourhood. In 47 years, I have never witnessed anything like it."

Mr Bousfield said Jones's prison sentence will impact on his two tearful teenage sons – one of whom has cystic fibrosis – and his employer.