A GUNMAN who threatened to kill a young woman while pointing an air rifle at her and a young mother has been jailed.

Mark Simpson was about a metre away from the first woman when he said he would kill her, she told the jury.

The mother said she ran into the block of flats where she lived on hearing a sound like a gun shot.

She was confronted by her neighbour Simpson pointing the gun at her. Then the first woman followed her inside and Simpson said “I will kill, I will kill” and pointed the gun at the first woman, the two told York Crown Court.

The mother was a witness in eviction proceedings to make Simpson leave the flats in South Bank.

Judge Simon Hickey told the gunman: “You chose in drink, and probably after ingesting drugs as well, to take out a weapon and point it at two young women.

“It was a very realistic looking weapon, quite a frightening looking weapon.”

He jailed Simpson for three years and made a restraining order banning him from contacting the women in any way for the next five years.

Simpson, 55, now of no fixed address, denied two charges of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to make others fear unlawful violence and affray, but was convicted by a jury.

His barrister Sean Smith said he had been barred from his flat since his arrest and had effectively been homeless ever since, sleeping on the streets and staying with friends. “He knew there were no pellets available for the gun”, said Mr Smith. “There was never ever going to be any actual gunshot.”

During his trial, Simpson denied that the gun pointing incident had ever occurred and denied making threats.

He said he had started drinking at 8pm that evening.