A boyfriend from hell who terrorized a family was jailed for two years today.

Health club worker Guy Hellewell admitted putting the Taylor family in fear of violence for two years until his arrest in August this year.

Hellewell, 25, traumatised his girlfriend, her mother, handicapped brother and his own two-year-old daughter by repeated attacks, said prosecutor Richard Cowen.

He regularly threatened girlfriend Catharine Taylor, also aged 25, with knives, snatched their distressed child, smashed up the family's Darlington home, and threatened to kill her and her mother Rita, 64, and burn down their house.

Miss Taylor told police that she did not call police because she thought it may make the situation worse, Teesside Crown Court heard.

She was out with friends on August 10 when she met Hellewell who accompanied her to a takeaway where he flew into a rage, repeatedly punching her. He then threatened to grab their daughter and kill her mother, added Mr Cowen.

When Miss Taylor arrived home, Hellewell began kicking the door, smashed a side window and climbed through - ripping the phone off the wall an she tried to call 999.

Mr Cowen added: "He rushed upstairs and came down with the child. Miss Taylor and the child were hysterical and her mother was screaming.

"He would not let the child go. Miss Taylor eventually took hold of the child.

"He said that if anybody tried to get an injunction against him or if the police arrived he was going to kill them both and burn the house down.

"The women really thought that they were going to die.

"Her mother ran into the kitchen and Miss Taylor managed to push her out of the front door. Her handicapped brother was upstairs and eventually the whole family left the house.

"They all seem to have been traumatised very significantly by this incident."

Warren Greir, defending, said that Hellewell, who had no previous convictions, felt rejected by Miss Taylor when she suffered post natal depression during their five-year relationship.

He sought help from a psychiatrist, and accepted his behaviour had terrified the family. Judge Tony Briggs told Hellewell: "This is a very serious matter. Custody is the only possible result of it."

Hellewell from Melsonby, near Richmond, was jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to putting the family in fear of violence between August 2000 and August this year, and he also admitted causing an affray on August 11.