A SELF-CONFESSED terrorist killer has been jailed for leading police on a terrifying chase in his car – all because he was having a bad day.

Roy Richmond sped along a footpath at 50mph in a desperate bid to evade a pursuing patrol car on the outskirts of Middlesbrough.

Richmond narrowly missed a pedestrian and also forced vehicles to swerve out of the way as he hurtled the wrong way down a dual-carriageway.

The June 21 incident was captured on the police car’s on-board video camera and shown to a judge at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Richmond was said to have “been in a bad mood” after a frustrating meeting with social services officials about access to his daughter, nine.

His barrister, Duncan McReddie, said the 52-year-old apologised and realised the peril he put others in as soon as he calmed down after his arrest.

In an interview with probation workers, Richmond claimed he had been a member of the loyalist paramilitary and revenge group, the Ulster Defence Association.

He told officials he had served 15 years in prison for killing and extortion – although neither offences appear on his criminal record.

Video footage showed Richmond’s Ford Fiesta performing a U-turn on a grassy area as he tried to outrun police.

After his arrest, Richmond told officers the acrimonious meeting “put him in such a mood he acted in the way he did”, said David Crook, prosecuting.

Mr McReddie told the court: “When events in his personal life get to the point where they are out of his control, there is not just an outburst of temper, there is an almost total loss of self-control.”

Richmond, of Doncaster Crescent, Stockton, admitted dangerous driving on the A1085 Cargo Fleet Lane, and driving without a licence.

Judge George Moorhouse jailed him for nine months, banned him from the roads for three years and ordered that he take an extended driving test.

The judge told him: “You clearly put other road-users at risk, apart from the risk to yourself... it was so serious only custody can be justified.”