Andrew Marshall (42) formerly of Westbourne Road, Whitby, appeared before a court on Monday for sentencing on charges of wounding, threatening to kill an off-duty police officer who tried to intervene in the family dispute, affray and criminal damage.

He had pleaded guilty to the four charges at an earlier hearing.

Marshall, who was jailed for a total of 27 months by a judge at York Crown Court, sitting in Leeds, carried out his attack on 28 April this year, after his wife and daughter had left him to move in with his mother-in-law, because of his excessive drinking.

Marshall went to the house, telling a neighbour he was angry his wife was trying to brainwash his six-year-old daughter into changing her religion.

Prosecuting, Rob Galley said Marshall then went to the Whitby home of his mother-in-law, ripped out the telephone wire from its socket and confronted her in front of his wife and their daughter.

During the argument his mother-in-law pleaded with Marshall, who had taken two knives with him, to kill her rather than her daughter and granddaughter, and received two slash wounds to her hand when she tried to stop him getting at them.

One of the wounds went so deep it bared the tendons in her hand, Marshall telling his daughter he was doing it because he loved her.

She pleaded for him not to do anything because he would go to prison.

The police were called and first on the scene was an off-duty officer who Marshall threatened to kill, pushing a knife to within centimetres of his face.

The officer backed off, waiting for reinforcements to arrive who Marshall then also threatened to kill before calming down and eventually asking for his own mother to be contacted.

Mr Galley said the couple had split three weeks earlier after Marshall's long-standing drink problem, which could cause him to become aggressive, became worse and he started hiding vodka around the marital home.

When interviewed, Marshall who, said Mr Galley, was obviously heavily in drink during the events, told the police his mother-in-law had been injured when she grabbed the knife and that he had not intended his threats to kill anyone to be taken seriously.

Mitigating, David Dixon told the court his client, who had now lost his accommodation, realised he had to beat his alcohol problem, with the last 105 days on remand in prison to some extent helping this resolve.

Adding that Marshall had been devoted to his wife and daughter and had been 'absolutely and utterly distraught' when they left, Mr Dixon said his client was now starting the correct process via the family courts in an effort to have contact with the child on his eventual release from custody.

He said Marshall now realised his marriage was over, his wife having already started divorce proceedings.

Passing sentence, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Marshall he had clearly traumatised the three females.