A WOMAN who armed herself with a pickaxe and smashed her way into her former boyfriend’s house at night has been jailed.

Caitlin Margaret Rose Fowler, 21, fought with the ex-boyfriend and his family at the top of their staircase, said Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting.

Moments before she invaded their home, she had sent a picture of herself with the pickaxe, warning: “He will learn, I will do prison, he will learn.”

Her barrister Sean Smith said she had mental health issues at the time for which she was not getting treatment.

Since being remanded in prison, she had received treatment and counselling, he told the court.

“She presents today as a completely different individual,” he said.

She had written letters of apology to her victims and was remorseful, the court heard.

“This was a terrifying ordeal for your victims,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told her at York Crown Court.

“It was a nightmarish scene.”

Fowler, of Navigation Road, off Walmgate, York, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

She cried as she was jailed for 32 months.

Fowler was also forbidden to contact her ex-boyfriend or his parents for 10 years under a restraining order.

The judge took into account that she had “come to her senses” in the house and dropped the pickaxe once she was inside.

She had also started to tackle her problems while on remand.

Mr Bosomworth said Fowler was drunk at the end of an evening out in York city centre on January 17 and behaving aggressively.

She got upset as she sent her former boyfriend text messages, despite attempts by him and her sister to stop her.

Sent home by her sister in a taxi, she immediately set off to her former boyfriend’s house.

Concerned, her family rang police.

Fowler went into the garden shed at her boyfriend’s home and got the pickaxe at 11.30pm.

“She then proceeded to break into the house using the pickaxe to smash a way through the kitchen patio door,” said the prosecution barrister.

Her ex-boyfriend confronted her at the top of the stairs and tried to restrain her.

His parents had been woken by the noise and joined the melee on the landing.

Both parents suffered minor injuries as she kicked out and struggled.

Police arrived five minutes later and arrested her.

Mr Smith said she had complex mental health issues and had been drinking too much in January.

He added that she knew she still had to do more work to rehabilitate herself.