A knife-wielding man barricaded himself inside a house, told police he had a gun and warned them that “the first one on in gets slashed”.
Craig Mulgrew, 36, barricaded himself inside the house and told officers he “had a gun and was going to load it”.
He then threw a kitchen knife out of the window towards police and firearms officers during a protracted stand-off, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Rebecca Young said Mulgrew had gone into his aunt’s home with a named woman at about 1.20am on 5 September.
The woman spoke to officers through the open window and pleaded with Mulgrew to let her out during the “police siege”, but he refused and remained holed up for about 40 minutes, by which time firearms officers had arrived at the scene after his aunt dialled 999.
He finally “calmed down” and submitted to arrest and no firearms were found on him.
Ms Young said that the previous day, Mulgrew had gone to the home of his ex-partner in York who was protected by a restraining order imposed in January after Mulgrew was convicted of assaulting her and damaging her property.
The order prohibited Mulgrew from contacting her and going to her address in Chapelfields Road.
But on 4 September he called her, warning her that he was coming to her house. At about 11pm, while the victim was inside, he turned up and tried the front door.
“He then started shouting through the letterbox, telling her to open the door,” added Ms Young.
“He went round the side of the house and entered the side door into the kitchen which had been left open.”
The victim, who was named in court, was already on the phone to police and told him to get out.
Mulgrew left but took a bike and the family’s pet dog as he did so, although he later returned and gave them back.
The following day, Mulgrew went to his aunt’s house and when officers arrived, he began “shouting at (them) through a window, holding up a bat, threatening to harm them if they came inside the house”.
He then threw the kitchen knife out of the window, towards the officers. The knife landed blade-first, stuck in the ground and didn’t hit any officers.
“He also shouts at the officers that he has a gun and this causes police to ring for firearms support,” said Ms Young.
‘Appalling behaviour’
Mulgrew – formerly of Mowbray Drive, York, but lately of Cockret Road, Selby – appeared for sentence today after he admitted threatening a person with an offensive weapon and breaching a restraining order.
His criminal record comprised 64 offences including serious violence, affray, making threats to kill, assaulting a police officer and carrying an offensive weapon. In 2009, he was jailed for four-and-a-half-year for GBH.
The restraining order to protect his ex-partner was imposed in the new year after Mulgrew assaulted her while they were staying in a caravan. During the drink-fuelled attack, in which he allegedly brandished a knife, he punched her in the face, causing a lump around her eye.
His defence counsel conceded that Mulgrew’s behaviour towards his ex-partner, a mother-of-three, was “appalling” and that “alcohol (was) his biggest downfall”.
Judge Simon Hickey told Mulgrew that “you know, and I know” that it could only be an immediate jail sentence for such serious offences, aggravated by his dreadful criminal record.
He said Mulgrew’s behaviour during the “stand-off” or “police siege”, which lasted up to 50 minutes, was “aggressive, threatening, irate and unpredictable”.
Mr Hickey added: “The threat no doubt caused serious distress to the victims when someone starts talking about firearms and loading it.”
He had noted Mulgrew’s previous convictions for violence “particularly towards partners and the police”. Mulgrew received an 18-month jail sentence but will only serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.