A MAN who threatened two people with a screwdriver leaving them in fear of their lives has been given a high level community sentence by magistrates.

Edward Anthony Read, 30, will have to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and complete 20 rehabilitation days for his behaviour towards the man and woman in Main Street, Ingleton, on April 10.

The woman was also granted a restraining order banning Read from contacting or approaching her for 12 months.

Skipton Magistrates Court was told on Friday that Read, who works in a pub, had lost control and behaved like an ‘alcohol filled automaton’ after drinking too much.

He had been asked by the woman, who he had previously had sexual relations, to come to her home with medication for her male friend who was suffering from heartburn.

Read, who had already been drinking during the evening, went to her home, some 300 yards away, where more alcohol was drunk by all three, said prosecutor, Nadine Clough.

He reacted badly when the other man put an arm around the woman, and when told to leave, refused. The police were called, he left and then returned and picked up a screwdriver kept in the shared hall.

He threatened to stab them both with it and used it to bang on the door, said Ms Clough.

In a victims statement, the woman said she no longer felt safe in her home and had moved temporarily to her father’s house in another county to keep away from Read. She believed Read was jealous of the other man and that she had attempted to calm him down.

The man, who the court heard was used to violence, had also completed a victims statement in which he also described been in fear of his life.

Read, who admitted at an earlier hearing using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour, was not a violent man, and had lost control after drinking too much, the court heard.

In mitigation, Keith Blackwell, said Read had not been jealous, he had wanted to protect the woman from the other man of who he was suspicious.

Read had already been drinking and when he arrived at the woman’s home, and he had been given gin, a drink in likely generous proportions of which he was not used, said Mr Blackwell.

“That is what appears to have turned him into an alcohol filled automaton, banging on the door with a screwdriver," said Mr Blackwell.

Read worked in a pub, and had been on furlough for many months during the pandemic, said Mr Blackwell. Following the incident, he had self referred himself to the alcohol rehabilitation service North Yorkshire Horizons.

He was also supported by his employer who described him as a good person who had shown a lot of remorse and who would learn from his predicament.

Magistrates told Read, of Main Street, Ingleton, what he done was a shocking incident that had been terrifying to those present. He will also have to pay a £95 surcharge and £85 costs in addition to his 12 month high level community order.