A MALVERN man was jailed for 18 months after taking his estranged wife hostage.

Armed police were called to Beauchamp Road, where Stephen Burton was threatening her with an 11-inch combat knife.

At Worcester Crown Court, Burton, aged 41, of Jamaica Road, Malvern, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and affray.

The court heard he became agitated as their 17-year marriage disintegrated and he was barred from seeing his 11-year-old daughter.

Burton left a suicide note at his own home before driving to see his father for the last time on February 8 this year. But by chance he spotted his daughter and gave her a lift.

His wife Sandra tried to keep him out but, despite a court order not to go near the property, he kicked the door in, said David Munro, prosecuting.

Burton grabbed her round the neck and threatened to kill her and himself rather than go to prison.

His daughter escaped and police were alerted. At one stage, Burton poked the knife through the letterbox towards the face of an officer.

He held police at bay for over an hour before a trained negotiator, talking through the letterbox, persuaded him to surrender.

Burton, a hard-working man with no police record, felt betrayed after his wife left him for a friend of his, said Francis Laird, defending.

The couple were divorcing, although their son, aged seven, lived with his father.

Mr Laird said Burton, a former soldier, had resolved that day to kill himself. But he changed his plans after seeing his daughter in the street. She was crying after an argument with her mother.

"He was not allowed to see his daughter and that caused him a great deal of distress," added Mr Laird. "Emotion got the better of him, but he has now learned his lesson."

Judge Andrew Geddes said it was a serious aggravating feature that Burton had armed himself with a knife.

He said two people had been terrified by the incident but accepted that the defendant had acted while under extreme emotional stress.