AN EX-FOREIGN legionary terrified a family when he turned up at their isolated rural home in the early hours and told them he knew how to kill people, York magistrates heard.

Joseph Gaffney Martin, 26, had been trying to make his way home on foot because he had missed his bus after a binge-drinking session in Sherburn-in-Elmet, and didn’t know where he was or what he was doing, said Mark Whitfield, defending.

Cathy Turnbull, prosecuting, said Martin told the family: “You rich ***** you are all the same. I am not going anywhere. You have got all of this and I have got nothing.”

He was arrested and taken away after a struggle, leaving the family scared he will return, the court heard.

Dairy worker Martin, of Newton Garth, Leeds, pleaded guilty to using threatening words and behaviour and resisting a police officer. He was given a 12-month community order with supervision and an alcohol treatment programme.

Ms Turnbull said the family was asleep when Martin disturbed them at 3am on August 2. Disturbed, they asked him what he was doing. Martin was swaying with unfocused eyes and behaved aggressively. Fearful of what he would do, the family contacted a neighbour and tried unsuccessfully to calm him down.

“I felt very frightened and intimidated by him,” the father of the family told police.

Martin told them he had been in the French Foreign Legion and “knew how to kill people”.

When the neighbour arrived, Martin left, falling over a fence, and they lost sight of him.

Mr Whitfield said Martin accepted he had an alcohol problem and needed help. He drank heavily to blot out memories, and suffered from depression. He had served briefly in the French Foreign Legion before being discharged on medical grounds and had welcomed the discipline it imposed. He had also dropped out of a music production course at Leeds University because of his drinking, the court heard.