A MAN obsessed with the "dark web" and terrorist executions is behind bars for threatening to kill his father and battering his girlfriend unconscious.

Joe Clarke, from Darlington, was said to have fantasised about being a serial killer and was fascinated by extreme murders carried out by such groups as Isis.

Clarke watched beheadings on the internet and once threatened a partner he would carve swastikas on her face before stabbing her to death.

The 24-year-old was jailed for four years and eight months after a judge at Teesside Crown Court told him: "You have got a very troubling record."

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, added: "You are an angry young man, and when you are angry, you threaten people and threaten them with violence and death."

In October, Clarke was arrested after a terrifying incident at his home involving his partner and his father, prosecutor Nigel Soppitt said.

The young woman said something he was "plainly not very happy about" said Mr Soppitt and, after falling asleep, woke to find him going berserk.

He was pacing the floor, repeatedly punching a door and shouting, which prompted his father to go into the room and try to call 999.

Mr Soppitt said Clarke warned his frightened dad – before he fled the bedroom: "If you ring the police, I'll kill you and I'll kill her."

Clarke attacked the teenager on his bed, punching her repeatedly to the face and body "to the extent that she lost consciousness".

His father had texted a friend to alert police, and when they arrived, they found blood "everywhere", said Mr Soppitt.

Officers found the battered victim with severe bruising and swelling to her left eye and cheek, a cut to the bridge of her nose, and cuts to her mouth.

In an impact statement, she told how her mother had to look after her young child as she could not them him her for weeks until her wounds healed.

She said the separation was "difficult for us both" and explained how she had worries about losing the vision in one eye – but that never happened.

The court heard that Clarke was jailed for 21 months in May 2014 for charges of making threats to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He punched his then-partner in the throat, and after she barricaded herself in a room, grabbed a knife and started scraping it against a wall.

Clarke was stamping his feet and saying: "I'm coming to get you. I wonder what it'd be like to stab a human. I'm going to carve swastikas on you."

In June 2016, he was given a three-year prison sentence for making threats to kill and possessing an offensive weapon – offences against his father.

Mr Soppitt said he was obsessed with Isis, murder and beheading, fantasised about being a multiple killer, and wanted to find an ex girlfriend to kill her.

Kelleigh Lodge, mitigating, told the court: "He fully accepts this is a nasty incident. He now realises that his behaviour was totally unacceptable.

"There is clearly a link between his offending and his consumption of alcohol or drugs. He knows that now, and has taken positive steps to address it."

Miss Lodge added: "He is genuinely sorry for his behaviour towards the complainant and his father. He is aware how serious his previous convictions are.

"He accepts his previous convictions for violent matters and threats to kill look bad, but he stresses he is now aware of the issues and is taking steps."

Clarke, of Brawton Grove, Darlington, admitted charges of making threats to kill and assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.