JAILED: Knifeman who threatened to slit York man's throat and bomb his grandfather's house

Reece Tomlinson, who shouted a stream of violent threats from outside a hostel in York's Walmgate on two separate occasions, has now been jailed for a year and nine months by a judge at York Crown Court.

The 23-year-old, who had pleaded pleaded guilty to carrying a knife, witness intimidation and a public order offence, was also handed a three year restraining order barring him from going within 100 metres of his victim's address.

Laurie Scott, prosecuting, said that Tomlinson, of Navigation Road, off Walmgate, went to the hostel run by York Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (YACRO) after hearing that a resident, James Stainthorpe, had been involved in an incident with a woman with whom they had both been in a relationship.

York Crown Court

Tomlinson told police in interview that he was angry because Stainthorpe had tried to pull her out of a car and he went to the hostel to confront him. He denied he had taken a knife with him, claiming he had just found it nearby.

Ms Scott said he paced up and down outside the hostel, shouting: "I am going to kill you. I am going to stab you up."

He lifted up his T-short to reveal a knife inside his trouser waistband.

A hostel worker bundled Stainthorpe inside, but Tomlinson continued making threats, including one to slit his throat, and pushed the end of the knife through the bars of a locked gate into the hostel yard, and police were called.

After being interviewed by officers, he was bailed on condition he did not go within 100 metres of Stainthorpe but two days later he was back at the hostel, making more threats to the effect that, if he went to court, he would 'do him in.'

Ms Scott said he also threatened to bomb or burn the house of Stainthorpe's grandfather, and he knew where his grandfather lived, she said.

Andrew Semple said in mitigation that Tomlinson suffered from ADHA (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was impulsive and immature, and suffered from a lack of structure while growing up. He had been telephoned by a woman who was greatly upset and was saying Stainthorpe had dragged her from a car and asking him to help her.

None of his previous convictions was for offences involving weapons and he had not expected a physical confrontation when he went to the hostel. "This is not a habitual act of his," he said.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said he found Tomlinson's claim that he had simply found the knife outside the hostel 'incredible and implausible,' adding: "It beggars common sense."