A DRUG addict who threatened to slit his own mother's throat during an hour-long armed siege at her home was jailed for three years yesterday.

Andrew Gibson, 26, told his terrified mother Maureen, 48, that he was going to kill her because he had nothing to lose as the police were going to shoot him anyway.

Gibson broke into her Middlesbrough home at night and kept her prisoner in the lounge holding an eight-inch kitchen knife to her throat.

She managed to ring police who sent an armed response unit to the house. Eventually she grabbed a key and escaped, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Gibson, of Elizabeth Street, Thornaby, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, actual bodily harm assault and criminal damage.

Judge George Moorhouse said that Mrs Gibson, who had refused to give her son money to buy amphetamine, would never forget her terror for the rest of her life.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds said that Gibson, who was released from prison a month ago, was refused a home by his mother because of previous trouble. He broke a window at the house and two days later was given a conditional discharge by Teesside Magistrates.

He returned to her house after the case demanding money, but she called the police.

Later that night, when she was in bed, she heard the sound of the lounge window shattering and when she went down to investigate she found him climbing in.

He pushed her into a chair and put the knife to her throat.

Gibson told police that he had been under the influence of drugs.