AN armed man who tried to force his way into a secluded Clifton flat and threatened to stab those inside had nearly killed two men in a knife fight some years earlier, it can now be revealed.

Nigel Jamieson prosecuting, said Christopher Edward Norton, 35, had a 12 and a half inch knife with him and used it to try and lever a window open. He also banged a brick on the door and window flat to try and get in to where a group of friends were socialising on Monday evening.

He angrily shouted threats including : “If I get in I will stab you", "if I get in I will do you in" and "if you don't open the door I am going to smash the window."

In 2008, York Crown Court heard he gave a young man "life-threatening injuries" with a collapsed lung after Norton stabbed him and knifed another man in the back, narrowly missing his kidneys, in a street fight. Detective Constable Ash Khan said at the time both were lucky not to be killed.

Norton, of no fixed address, was on parole from a nine-year sentence for wounding both the stabbing victims with intent when he tried to force his way into the flat on Bootham Square and also has a previous conviction for robbing two Selby schoolboys with a screwdriver when high on Valium.

His solicitor Jackie East said he had very little memory of what had happened on Bootham Square on Monday evening because he had taken Valium that evening.

Norton pleaded guilty to carrying a knife in public, using violence to try and get into the flat and a public order offence. York magistrates sent him to York Crown Court for sentence where he will appear on July 20. He was remanded in custody.

The Parole Board has already recalled him to serve the rest of the nine-year sentence which finishes on November 11, 2017. It was the third time he had been recalled while on prison licence.

Mr Jamieson said the friends in the flat made a 999 call to police. When Norton, having failed to get in, cycled off towards the city centre, CCTV operators tracked him until police caught up with him.

Mrs East said Norton had been robbed himself on Monday when he had lost a phone and some money. Wrongly believing the robber was in the Bootham Square flat, he had gone there to speak to them. He now accepted that none of the people in the flat were responsible for the robbery.

"He is a man with significant difficulties," said Mrs East. He had been working with drug agencies, the probation service and staff at the YACRO accommodation in Walmgate where he had been staying since his most recent release from prison on May 1, but that had not stopped him offending.

Mr Jamieson said the owner of the flat told Norton the names of the people in the flat to try and stop him coming in.