THE wife of man jailed for 15 months after he brandished a knife in the street when paramedics were treating their one-month-old child, broke down in tears as he was sentenced.

Joshua Penhaligon reacted angrily when his daughter was being treated in the rear of an ambulance and started throwing bottles out of their bedroom window after a row with his wife.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 22-year-old came out of their home in Peabody Street, Darlington, and got into an argument with a neighbour in the early hours of July 18.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said the neighbour "offered him out" and told Penhaligon to "go and get a knife" and fight him.

She said: "The defendant came out if his house into the street with a large kitchen knife, it was described as massive and had an eight-inch blade.

"Having seen the knife the paramedics were concerned for their safety and they bolted the door of the ambulance shut with the mother and child inside.

"The defendant started to hit the door with the handle of the knife before pulling off the handle of the door and that is the criminal damage in this case.

"He did not want to be separated from his partner and their child. When the police arrived, they arrested him and he was in a distressed and agitated state."

Miss Haigh told the court about a previous incident involving the defendant when he pulled an imitation gun on a woman following a row in a car park in Truro, Cornwall.

When he was later arrested police officers found the air rifle complete with gas canisters and five bags of herbal cannabis worth about £50.

He was given a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years, which he breached by getting arrested in the summer.

Amrit Jandoo, mitigating, said Penhaligon had been working well with the probation service following his conviction in Cornwall last year and urged the judge to spare him jail following his guilty pleas.

He said "It was a shortlived incident, no one was hurt and he had no intention of hurting anyone else. Once he has realised his actions, he went back into the house."

Judge Howard Crowson sentenced Penhaligon to five months for the breach of a suspended sentence, a consecutive ten months for possession of a bladed article and a one month concurrent sentence for criminal damage.

He said: "You were throwing items from a bedroom window, the neighbour reacted badly to that and wanted you to stop shouting. One suggested that you come outside with a knife and fight him and that is what happened – you came outside with a knife with an eight-inch blade. There was a serious risk of disorder as a result."