A HEROIN addict who barged into a family home, demanding cannabis while making threats with a machete, has been jailed for five years and four months.

It followed a series of visits made by Kieran Wynn to the home in Ferryhill, County Durham, after the female householder previously gave in to his persistent pressure and had handed him some of the class B drug to smoke.

Durham Crown Court heard he left empty-handed on later visits, but turned up with an unknown accomplice, on the morning of August 15.

Sam Faulks, prosecuting, said the woman’s young child and partner were also inside when they walked into the kitchen uninvited.

Mr Faulks told the court: “He said he wanted cannabis and if he didn’t get any he would, ‘send the boys round.’

“He then pulled a foot-long machete from his hoodie.

“This was in front of the woman’s young daughter. When he was told the child was terrified, he said: ‘I don’t care. I’ll go through her as well, if I have to’.”

But the pair left when the woman’s partner began to phone for police.

Mr Faulks said it was four days later when Wynn was arrested after he was spotted trying to hide, lying next to a garden wall, in Park Terrace, Ferryhill.

When questioned, he accepted going to the house looking for drugs, but claimed he bought them, ‘on tick’, having run up a £100 debt.

He also claimed the male householder “pulled a knife” on him.

But, he subsequently accepted the prosecution case, pleading ‘guilty’ to attempted robbery and possession of a knife in public on the day of his scheduled trial last month.

The court heard the 21-year-old, of Church Lane, Ferryhill, has a number of previous offences and has served previous custodial sentences.

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said this was more serious than any of his previous convictions.

“He’s more akin to a social nuisance than a serious big-time offender.

“At the time this took place he was heavily addicted to heroin, injecting himself up to ten times a day with that drug.

“He accepts arming himself with that knife and making those rather pathetic threats, although he left voluntarily without any violence having been committed.”

Jailing him, Recorder Simon Batiste told Wynn it must have been a “terrifying” ordeal for the family, particularly for the young girl present.