A MAN handcuffed and bound his former girlfriend before kidnapping her, a court heard yesterday.

Desmond Swallow, 39, forced his way into Memtaz Begum's Middlebrough home where he lay in wait.

Teesside Crown Court heard how he grabbed her by the hair as she returned from work, pulling her around the house. He then handcuffed her, bound her feet with plastic ties and gagged her with masking tape.

Stephen Ashurst, prosecuting, said her three-hour ordeal continued when Swallow decided to drive her to his home in Aslams Court, Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

He removed her bindings to allow her to get into his car, warning that he would stab her if she tried to run.

Mr Ashurst said when they arrived, Miss Begum asked to be taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries received during the struggle.

While there, she failed to alert staff as she did "not have the nerve," said Mr Ashurst. She later escaped barefoot from his house, at 5am the next day as he slept.

The court heard how Swallow began a relationship with Miss Begum in 1993 while working in the Midlands and living in Thornaby, Teesside.

The relationship began to deteriorate, and Miss Begum, a support worker with a mental health telephone helpline in Sunderland, wanted to end it - an idea Swallow found "difficult to accept".

She then began to receive unwanted phone calls at work from Swallow. Her solicitors wrote to him, threatening to serve him with an injunction or restraining order unless he stopped. Just two days later he kidnapped her.

Anthony Calloway, for Swallow, said it was an "emotionally charged" incident and that his client was receiving help from mental health services.

He said Swallow, who admitted assault and kidnap, had not been in touch with Miss Begum since the incident. Mr Calloway said: "What he did was wrong and he regrets it."

Judge Peter Fox, QC, imposed a two-year suspended prison sentence and a supervision order and said Calloway had narrowly avoided jail