AN Evesham man waved a knife at his wife in front of their children and told her he was going to kill her.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for three years at Hereford Crown Court on Wednesday, October 9, after pleading guilty to affray and false imprisonment.

The court heard his estranged wife, who also cannot be identified, was visiting to collect their children from her husband in his Evesham home on Wednesday, June 12, this year when he locked the door and produced a knife.

Prosecuting, Richard Cartwright, said he had been drinking earlier that day and began stabbing the settee.

He said: "You've had a piece of me, I'm definitely going to have a piece of you now."

The man's daughter tried to stop him, but he told her to get out of the way, "I don't want to hurt you," he said.

"It's going to be just like Midlands Today, where the husband kills the estranged wife," he added at which point he produced another knife and began waving it around.

His child then cuddled him and begged him to stop, pushing his hand down towards the floor and he began sobbing.

Through tears he said: "Go quick, before I change my mind."

Defending, Michael Aspinall, said: "This was a man whose fabric of immediate existence had collapsed around him."

He said he had been drinking because he was under pressure and spoke of the trauma caused to him by his marriage breaking up and his financial worries.

"His mind was befuddled with alcohol. He had no real intention to cause any harm to his family. This was not pre-planned in any way.

"His children expressed their love for him - he is lucky."

He said the defendant had not seen his children since his arrest as he had been in custody since then, but would "make himself available".

He said: "He now has to rebuild his life and recognises that he may need assistance from others.

"He is a man who is not a danger to his wife or his children."

Sentencing, Judge David Matthews, said the incident was "one of the worst he had encountered".

He added: "The children felt their mother was going to be killed. They were intensely distressed.

"Had it not been for their intervention there was no telling how that afternoon would have ended."