A MAN who terrorised his girlfriend with knives and also threatened to set her on fire was jailed for two years yesterday.

Peter Harrison, 42, of Raby Road, Hartlepool, had previous convictions for assaults on Sherrie Galvanovskis during their three-year relationship and also for attacking another girlfriend.

His lawyer said that he was incapable of behaving decently towards his partner when he had been drinking.

Mrs Galvanovskis decided that she wanted nothing more to do with him after a previous assault, but she gave him a room after he turned up on her doorstep homeless, said Aisha Wadoodi, prosecuting.

Teesside Crown Court heard that he kept pestering her for a sexual relationship and he became agitated after drinking. He got a 12in kitchen knife saying: "I might as well end it because you don't care".

Mrs Galvanovskis was nursing her two young grandchildren, and she told him to put down the knife, which he did, and she took the children upstairs to her bedroom.

He followed them into the room and he pulled a cigarette lighter from his pocket, which he held close to the bedsheets, saying: "I might as well set you alight then, you like fire don't you".

The next day he went out drinking and when he returned around midnight he again asked her for sex.

He got another 12in kitchen knife and he held it to her throat saying "I'm going to slit your throat, I'm going to kill you", the court was told.

Martina Connolly, in mitigation, said: "He is a man who has problems with relationships and drink.

"He is a man who is utterly incapable of really anything when it comes to his domestic relationships.

"He has absolutely no insight into what is appropriate behaviour when he is in drink."

Harrison pleaded guilty to putting a person in fear of violence by harassment in July.

Mrs Galvanovskis was given a three-year protection order by a judge.