An engineer kidnapped his former girlfriend by hiding in the boot and bursting through the back seat with a gun, a court was told today.

Glen Thwaites, 31, who had been suffering from paranoia and severe depression, held the gun to the head of of Emma Gray, 28, during a 90-minute terror drive through Teesside.

When Thwaites ordered her to pull into a layby Miss Gray, who ended their eight-year relationship because he was possessive, spun the Fiesta's steering wheel throwing him off-balance and the gun fell onto the front passenger seat.

She grabbed it and threw it through the window into some bushes. Thwaites was not deterred and he told her to continue driving as he repeatedly insisted he was going to kill himself.

When he allowed her to stop at a corner shop she explained the situation to assistant Harbajan Singh and asked him to call the police.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Thwaites then drove her to a cut de sac and stopped saying that he wanted to talk.

But he dropped a lit cigarette into his lap and when he got out to beat off the ash she drove away.

Prosecutor Jamie Hill said the drama then switched to the A66 where Thwaites sat on a bridge over speeding traffic threatening to jump off. Police closed the road for one hour 20 minutes while trained negotiators talked him down.

Thwaites, who took an overdose in an earlier attempt on his life, was in a psychiatric unit for four months after the kidnap, said Dan Cordey, defending.

He now accepts that the relationship is over and that his behaviour was totally unacceptable.

A psychiatrist at a Stalking Unit reported that he posed a low risk to her and that prison could have a great effect on his mental health.

Judge George Moorhouse told Thwaites: "I accept in passing sentence upon you today that you had no intention in any way to cause her harm, but having said that it must have been a dreadful experience for her and something which she will have cause to recall for a very long time to come."

Thwaites of Northumberland Road, Thornaby, was given an 18 months jail sentence suspended for two years after he pleaded guilty to the January 13 kidnap. .