A RAGING drunk smashed his way through a bedroom door with a mallet as his partner and children cowered behind it, a court heard yesterday.

Daniel McMenamin screamed at his terrified family, telling them: "I'm going to kill all of you and then the police when they come and then I'm going to kill myself."

One of his sons recorded the late-night drama on his mobile phone and extracts of it were played to Judge Peter Fox at Teesside Crown Court.

McMenamin, 43, sat with his head bowed in the dock, rubbing his eyes as he listened to himself yelling the threats and his loved ones screaming in fear.

Judge Fox described the incident as "horrific, disgraceful and terrifying" but allowed McMenamin to walk free after deciding he was "a decent man".

He gave the father-of-three a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision, and ordered him to go on a domestic violence course.

The judge said a letter from McMenamin's partner, asking for him not to be jailed and to be given assistance, also helped to spare him immediate custody.

McMenamin, of Yarm, was given the unusual chance to address the judge in person after his barrister had spoken.

He told Judge Fox: "I want to apologise to my partner of 17 years. I have lost everything. I deserve to lose everything for the way I behaved that night.

"I am going to do everything I can to make things better in the future. I will do anything to put things right. I want to say sorry to my whole family."

Connor Quinn, mitigating, said McMenamin, who admitted a charge of affray, has stopped drinking and sought help since the incident on April 2 last year.

"When discussing this case with him, he has expressed his feelings of revulsion at what he did, his shame and his sorrow, "Mr Quinn told the court.

Tamara Pawson, prosecuting, said the incident at the family home in Eaglescliffe, blew up after McMenamin returned home drunk.

Judge Fox told McMenamin: "You heard the fear which all of your family suffered at your hands, through your drunken rage and behaviour.

"You have thrown away a 17-year investment through your own fault - no one else is to blame, and she has been an important factor in my decision to suspend the sentence."