A MAN who threatened to chop up his former partner with a Samurai sword has been jailed.

Theo McLean 'flipped' when he got into an argument with her before grabbing the sword and threatening her in their Darlington home last December.

Teesside Crown Court heard how it took the discharge of three Tasers and four police officers to subdue McLean when they found him hiding in the loft the following day.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said the defendant had threatened to 'chop her up and put her in the freezer' a few days before the incident on December 20 but thought he was just being 'a dickhead'.

However, Miss Atkinson said the defendant had an argument with someone on the phone and got agitated with his former partner.

She said: "He picked up a knife off the floor, grabbed hold of her, pulled her down with the knife raised above his head and said to her 'If you have done anything to me I will chop you up’."

The victim called the police and when they arrived to arrest him they found him hiding in the loft in the house on Surtees Street, Darlington, and a sword was recovered from the property.

Miss Atkinson said McLean told the officers that they would get hurt if they tried to arrest him before the Tasers were deployed when he charged at them.

McLean, 43, of Maple Road, Darlington, pleaded guilty to making threats to kill, assault by beating, affray, assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a police officer, theft and criminal damage.

In mitigation, Duncan McReddie, said his client had suffered a 'destabilising' incident when he was accused of committing another offence by his former partner but following a full investigation he was fully exonerated.

He added: "He has been absolutely candid about his behaviour, he has not intimated any self pity and didn't blame his former partner for what took place that day."

The judge, Recorder David Kelly, sentenced McLean to a total of three and a half years. He said: "You grabbed hold of your victim while you were holding a Samurai sword over your head, you were threatening to chop her up and put her in the fridge – she genuinely thought she was going to die.

"You then lunged towards her but you didn't make any contact with her but you did damage the bedroom door."

Dealing with the attack on the officers, he said McLean had threatened to hurt all of them."