DRUNKEN and drug-fuelled messages sent to two women within hours of each other have resulted in the sender being jailed for five years.

Neil Andrew Wright posed with a taser stun gun, which he discharged, in one of the increasingly threatening video messages, sent early on December 4.

Durham Crown Court heard Wright also posed with an axe and a sword, while wearing a balaclava mask, as he threatened one woman.

Chris Baker, prosecuting, said Wright took out the stun gun device and told her: “I’m going to taser the f**k out of you and your family.”

So fearful was the recipient that she rang him and he told her that he believed her daughter had been threatening his own daughter.

In her victim statement she said she felt afraid and intimidated by the video.

Mr Baker said firearms officers went to his home and recovered the axe, sword and the taser, which was disguised as a flash light.

As it was capable of being discharged it was considered a firearm in law.

Mr Baker said unlawful possession of such devices is met with a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence.

Wright had earlier that morning also bombarded an ex-partner with messages in which he threatening to come over to her house, with a chilling comment in one: “Get well soon,” suggesting she should move away.

He was arrested and made no reply to questions.

The court was told he has only one previous conviction and three police cautions, but none since 2011.

Wright, 34, of Station Road, Seaham, admitted possessing a disguised firearm, plus four counts of sending a malicious communication.

Umza Khan, mitigating, said he was, “totally ashamed” by his actions.

She said he was a drug user from an early age, resulting in drug-induced psychosis, while he was also diagnosed with compulsive behaviour, anxiety and depression.

Miss Khan said his drug misuse led to relationship breakdowns.

But he continued to work until last October, when he felt he no longer needed the assistance of a community psychiatric nurse.

It led to a relapse on the night of the offences, which she described as, “very much out of character.”

She urged Judge Jonathan Carroll to take “an exceptional course” and avoid passing the mandatory sentence in such circumstances.

But, Judge Carroll said while he accepted Wright was, “genuinely ashamed”, he regarded the imposition of the mandatory sentence as, “not arbitrarily disproportionate” in this case.

Imposing the 60-month sentence, he also ordered destruction of the weapons, and he put in place a restraining order prohibiting Wright from contacting the two women, both for 15 years.