A MAN who sparked a tense stand-off with armed police and brought terror to his street as he tried to electrocute himself has been jailed for a year.

Matthew Dixon threatened to stab officers and batter them with a claw-hammer as he held them at bay outside his girlfriend’s Darlington flat.

Dixon also wired himself up to the mains – but failed to give himself an electric shock – and built a makeshift flame-thrower.

After barricading himself into the flat in Corporation Road, he filled a metal tube with nails, screws and bolts and hurled it at police, a court heard.

He also sprayed cleaning fluid around a room and tried to light it before making a shield from a cupboard and goading officers with a hammer.

The suicidal 21-year-old slashed electric cable to expose the bare wire, poured cola over himself and put the wire to his chest before turning on the switch.

After a dramatic three-and-ahalf- hour stand-off, he opened the front door and gave himself up, Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

Officers found a craft knife, penknife, a metal tube and hammer inside the flat, and discovered he had wrecked the front room. The court heard he had argued with his girlfriend, Stacey Robson, after learning she had gone to visit her family in South Tyneside last October.

Yvonne Taylor, mitigating, described Dixon as “emotionally immature and unstable”.

“It was effectively the end of the relationship with his partner and he says he just could not cope,” she told Judge Peter Fox.

“All he wanted to do was harm himself. He just had suicidal thoughts and wanted to kill himself, and that’s what he was trying to do on the day.”

Judge Fox told Dixon: “This court must protect police officers from such violence, which is potentially very dangerous.”

The court heard that Dixon, who admitted affray, has 55 offences on his record going back to his school days, including a number for violence.

In 2007, he punched another passenger in a row on a bus, and the following year he brandished a knife during a disturbance in an off-licence.

Mr Gaston said police were called to the drama in Corporation Road before 8am, and Dixon screamed threatening abuse at the lone female officer.

Armed with a hammer, and later a knife, he yelled “If you come in here, you’ll get it... just see what I’ll do”, said Mr Gaston.

The officer called for back-up and as armed police arrived on the scene, they cordoned off the street to help keep neighbours and passers by safe.