A MAN who used a handsaw to smash a windscreen of a van where a nine year old boy was sitting has been jailed.

Nicoleta Alistari, prosecuting, said Joseph Michael Smith, 21, waved the cutting tool as he confronted the brother of his ex-partner outside a garage on a rural road.

Then he struck the van's bonnet and smashed the windscreen.

For Smith, Catherine Moxon said "It was a stupid mistake. He wishes to go back in time to change it."

Judge Paul Worsley QC said Smith had gone to where he knew the brother was and threatened to burn down the garage.

Then he had got the saw out of his own van and threatened people with it.

"There was a nine-year-old boy present witnessing these events," said the judge. "It must have been very frightening for him."

He jailed Smith for ten months.

Smith of Millgate, Selby, pleaded guilty to affray in Common Lane, Burn, near Selby.

He was already serving a six-month sentence for drug driving and other offences when he appeared before York Crown Court.

Ms Alistari said the boy's father was a friend of the target of Smith's anger. All three had travelled together to the garage.

The father and son had stayed in the van when they saw Smith, but the brother of Smith's ex-partner had got out.

Ms Moxon said the attack was out of character for Smith.

He had been to a christening earlier that day and had been upset by an argument which had led to him going to the garage outside Burn.

His imprisonment meant he would miss the birth of his child.