A MAN who threatened to kill his girlfriend after she said she was leaving to start a new life abroad was jailed for a year yesterday. Darryl Trentham, 21, was drunk and on drugs when he met with his then partner at a Colchester house to discuss their future.

A MAN who threatened to kill his girlfriend after she said she was leaving to start a new life abroad was jailed for a year yesterday.

Darryl Trentham, 21, was drunk and on drugs when he met with his then partner at a Colchester house to discuss their future.

The drama led to police involvement and a siege situation ensued at Chapel Street North in October last year.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard how Trentham, of Deeping St James in Lincolnshire, and his girlfriend argued but when she tried to leave he held a knife to her throat.

Trentham had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of actual bodily harm and a second one of affray.

Gareth Hughes, prosecuting, said the couple had a "stormy" relationship which had been aggravated because she was leaving with their young child to live in Spain.

Mr Hughes said Trentham had pulled out a BB gun and injured himself using a kitchen knife at the same time as he was holding the child.

His girlfriend, Jodie Ann Williams, suffered injuries to her right hand as she attempted to take the knife away.

After police stormed the house, Trentham asked them to give him the knife back so he could harm himself.

During interviews Trentham told detectives the only thing on his mind during the siege was dying.

He said: "I knew my kid was going off, so was my girlfriend - the two people I love most in the world, I did not want to live no more.

"I wanted to see her dying because she chose to leave - it is her fault."

Mitigating, David Holborn, said Trentham did not accept the BB gun had been used to threaten anybody and said psychiatric reports had found him to be "candid" and he had admitted his mistakes.

He said Trentham had a "deprived and unhappy background" and a deprived childhood - factors which had affected his actions on the day of the siege.

Sentencing, Judge Charles Gratwicke said Trentham's behaviour had been "unacceptable" and "appalling".

He sentenced Trentham to 12 months for affray and 6 months for the charge of ABH to run concurrently.