A MAN who tried to force his way into a flat using a kitchen knife and threatened to stab those inside has been jailed for more than two years.

Christopher Edward Norton, 35, was on parole from a nine-year sentence for nearly killing two men in a previous knife fight, when he took a knife with a seven-and-a-half inch blade and used it to lever open a window.

Frances Pencheon, prosecuting, told York Crown Court that he also picked up a brick and banged it on a bedroom window to try to get into the flat in Bootham Square, off Bootham near the city centre, where some friends were socialising.

Norton 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".

He was jailed for two years and two months.

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 in Bootham Square. He also has a previous conviction for robbing two Selby schoolboys with a screwdriver when high on Valium.

Norton pleaded guilty to carrying a knife in public, using violence to try and get into the flat and a public order offence.

In mitigation, Andrew Petterson said: "The defendant told me he had been in the property earlier that day and had left something in the property.

"The defendant's guilty pleas were entered at the earliest opportunity."

Norton, having failed to get in, cycled off towards the city centre but CCTV operators tracked him until police caught up with him.

Before the sentencing hearing yesterday (Wednesday) the Parole Board had already recalled Norton 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.

Recorder George Lowe QC told Norton, who was appearing via video link: "You're here for three offences, the most serious is the possession of a knife.

"The knife was used in a public place and used to cause fear of violence trying to get in the premises. You threatened to smash the window and threatened to stab someone."

He sentenced Norton to 26 months in prison for carrying a knife in public, and three months, which will run concurrently, for using violence to gain entry and a public order offence.