A WIFE'S alcoholism drove her 76-year-old husband to point a shotgun at her and threaten to shoot them both, York Crown Court heard.

Margaret Coxon responded to Keith Coxon's action by pulling the gun's barrel towards herself and telling him to shoot, said Rob Galley, prosecuting.

He didn't. The gun was unloaded. But he went in the hallway of their Acomb home in York, loaded the gun and fired it into the floor to frighten her.

Then he phoned the police, saying: "I want to surrender my firearms otherwise I may end up blowing off my wife's head."

Judge Peter Benson said the couple had been married for 27 years during which the husband had never hit his wife.

Coxon, formerly of Manor Drive South, Acomb, pleaded guilty to affray. He had no previous convictions.

The judge told him: "It is clear this was an aberration. Your frustration, which no doubt built up over several years came to a head and you behaved in a stupid fashion.

"You confronted her with (the shotgun) saying you knew the only way out you could see was to blow both of your heads off.

"She defied you, saying get on with it."

Referring to what his wife told the police afterwards, he said: "She says you had never hurt her, you are not an aggressive person and you would never do her any harm.

"I hope you and your wife can sort out your problems and resume your relationship."

The judge said anyone who used a firearm to frighten someone had to expect a custodial sentence but in the circumstances he could suspend it.

He gave the shortest possible suspended sentence, 14 days, suspended for 12 months.

Mr Galley said the husband's firearms licence had been revoked.

His two shotguns, his rifles and his ammunition were now in police hands and would not be returned to him under any circumstances.

He had kept them properly in locked cabinets, the court heard.

Mrs Coxon had given a police statement but had been reluctant to give evidence against her husband.

Mr Galley said in the run-up to the incident on February 11 with the shotgun, Mrs Coxon had had a problem with alcohol, and had decided to secretly get alcohol from a local shop and elsewhere.

She had been drinking before they had the argument that led to him fetching his shotgun.

Defence barrister Andrew Semple said Coxon was in ill health.