A HOUSEHOLDER who woke to find a man armed with a Samurai sword threatening to kill him, ran in terror across fields for more than a mile, a court heard yesterday.

York Crown Court heard how Dean Lancaster, 38, of Woodlea Avenue, York, had tried to help out a woman friend by taking the law into his own hands.

Armed with the metre-long sword sheathed in its scabbard, he had pounded so hard on Michael Burke's front door, in Highfield Green, Sherburn in Elmet, last November, that it had burst open.

Prosecutor Simon Kealey said Mr Burke was awakened by the noise. "Lancaster was threatening to kill Mr Burke and he (Mr Burke) was so scared he fled from the scene, ran across a number of fields and did not stop until he came to the Swan Hotel in South Milford."

Mr Kealey said that terrified Mr Burke phoned the police, who went to a house in Sherburn in Elmet where they recovered the sword from under a sofa.

Robert Terry, for Lancaster, said Mr Burke had been cautioned by the police for breaking the window of a neighbour. Lancaster was a friend of hers and had been visiting when he "over-reacted very badly".

Lancaster was jailed for nine months after admitting being in possession of an offensive weapon. Judge Patrick Robertshaw ordered that the Samurai sword be destroyed.