A MAN who threatened to torture and rape his pregnant former partner has been jailed for two years.

Gary Metcalfe grabbed a kitchen knife before starting to verbally abuse his terrified victim in her own home telling her he would ‘kick the baby out of her’.

The 22-year-old threatened to stab her in the feet and hands before demanding she go upstairs and get undressed.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Metcalfe called her a ‘slag and fat ****’ before asking if he could stay at her home for a few days until he get sort out somewhere to live.

The Northern Echo: Gary MetcalfeGary Metcalfe

Paul Cleasby, prosecution, said Metcalfe threatened to ‘kick the baby out of her’ before hitting her in the face and throwing a glass of water at her.

He said: “He told her to go upstairs remove her lower clothing and threatened to rape – at the time he was making these threats the defendant had hold of knife.

“He said he would stab her if she made a sound.”

Mr Cleasby said the threats and abuse lasted for around 40 minutes before she managed to calm him down and persuade him to let her leave her home.

The woman’s mother called the police after she was able to raise the alarm.

When she returned home with the police she discovered a £500 television had been smashed and a hole had been punched through a bathroom door.

Metcalfe, of no fixed abode but originally from the Darlington area, pleaded guilty to threats to kill, common assault and criminal damage, following the incident on October 31 last year.

Anthony Davis, in mitigation, said his client had suffered a violent attack last summer and was suffering post traumatic stress disorder.

Last July, he suffered life-threatening injuries, which included two severed Achilles tendons, saw him ‘effectively disembowelled’ and left unconscious in the street.

He was flown to The James Cook University Hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery.

Judge Recorder Nathan Adams branded the offences as ‘horrendous’ when he jailed Metcalfe.

He said: “The incidents were unprovoked by any activity on her part. You commenced your assault by grabbing her hair, you threatened to kill the unborn baby she was carrying, you then picked up the knife and continued to make threats – you threatened to stab her and bury her in the ground.

“You threatened to take her upstairs and torture her; you then threatened to rape her, all the time while you were brandishing the knife – she must have been terrified for herself and her unborn baby.”

Metcalfe was also issued with a three-year restraining order.