A MAN who threatened to shoot two police officers sneaked out the back of his home as an armed response team guarded the front.

Wayne Dixon had already brandished a Samurai sword at Sergeant Carol Steveley and PC Christopher Lambert when he warned them he would get a shotgun.

The officers retreated from the house and called for back-up from armed colleagues as what started out as a domestic incident threatened to turn into a stand-off.

But after Dixon's partner, Laura Melville, emerged from their home in Middlesbrough, officers went back in and found the 28-year-old had escaped.

Dixon was finally arrested when he returned four hours later, but in interview he denied the incident had happened and insisted he had never mentioned a gun.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that when Dixon was being questioned, he said: "I didn't say f*** all." No reply. "Are you daft?" No reply. "I couldn't give a f***."

Gale Gilchrist, prosecuting, told the court that Dixon refused to answer further questions and ripped a speaker from the wall of the interview room at the end of his interrogation.

The officers who had been called to the house in Astonbury Green, Easterside, by one of the couple's three children found 27-year-old Miss Melville injured and looking frightened.

Dixon jumped from his chair and picked up the 3ft sword before yelling at Sgt Steveley and PC Lambert: "Get out the house or I'll f***ing do you."

Judge Peter Fox, Recorder of Middlesbrough, jailed Dixon for four months, and told him: "Police officers are entitled to have the protection of these courts against that sort of conduct.

"The police officers went into your house perfectly lawfully. Something had gone on there and one of your children was sufficiently alarmed to call the police."

Dixon, now of Deepdale Avenue, Middlesbrough, admitted affray on January 5, and two charges of assaulting Miss Melville were dropped when she retracted her original statement.

Adrian Dent, mitigating, said: "There had obviously been a fairly heated domestic argument between the defendant and his partner, and it is quite clear that when the police arrived he was extremely agitated.

"It is accepted that his conduct after their arrival was completely inappropriate and I concede it was disgraceful. It must have been very frightening for the police officers and those in the house."