A MAN armed with a machete and an air pistol "behaved like a madman" in a drunken disturbance after a row with his girlfriend.

John Hewitt, who had been drinking heavily before the incident, threatened a neighbour who had previously banned him from the betting shop she managed, Durham Crown Court was told.

Andrew Findlay, prosecuting, said Hewitt fired the pistol into the air and shouted that he was going to blow his ex-partner's head off, in Barwick Street, Easington Colliery, east Durham.

She allowed him into the house to pacify the situation, but Hewitt thrust the machete into the back of a chair where she was sitting, before smashing the telephone and other household items when she tried to ring the police.

Michael O'Neill, for Hewitt, said the gun was incapable of discharging pellets and would be more realistically described as a toy.

Mr O'Neill said Hewitt had since accepted the relationship was over, and was moving to the Middlesbrough area, as he no longer wanted anything to do with Easington Colliery.

Hewitt, 34, formerly of Barwick Street, admitted a charge of affray.

Jailing him for 15 months, Judge Tim Hewitt told Hewitt: "You then went about that house like a madman. Courts will not tolerate domestic violence, particularly on such a scale as this."