A father has been jailed for threatening his ex-partner with an axe in front of their teenage daughter.
The 41-year-old had gone to visit his child at her home in Wellingborough in the late afternoon on February 29 when he was told the teen’s phone had been taken off her for ‘disciplinary reasons’.
Angry at this decision, due to a previous occasion when it had been confiscated from her and she was unable to report an alleged sexual assault, he flew into a rage and got an axe from the boot of his car.
Northampton Crown Court heard that the 15-year-old had accused her mother’s current boyfriend of sexually assaulting her but this charge was later dropped.
The weapon had been in the boot of the dad’s car for at least a year. He was seen to wave the axe around while shouting at his ex-partner by a 12-year-old boy who lived next door.
Judge Lynn Tayton said: “Your reaction to when she didn’t have a phone was extreme. You went to the door carrying an axe. I am told that axe was in the boot of your car and had been there since you had been camping before you were in hospital in March 2011.
“Nevertheless, as I pointed out, you must have been aware it was there. It was deliberate to take it to the door of your ex-partner’s house. You barged into her house shouting ‘are you scared?’ and you waved the axe around, hitting a wooden fence. You made various threats.
“Your 15-year-old daughter was present throughout this.” She added: “This was independently corroborated by a 12-yearold witness in a neighbouring house. One can only imagine what affect that had.” Last Thursday at Northampton Crown Court Judge Tayton jailed him for 16 months for a charge of possession of a bladed article in a public place, with a one-month concurrent sentence for criminal damage and a further two months to run concurrent for common assault.
He was also given a restraining order to last three years against his ex-partner.
