A MAN has been jailed for 16 months after he threatened police officers with a gas powered ball-bearing gun.

Leeds Crown Court heard Christopher Evans had already fired the weapon through the door and a window at his parents’ home hitting his father Mervin, after earlier subjecting his girlfriend Tiffany Morris to violence and threats at the home he shared with her.

Then he held police at bay from the roof of a garage at his Milnsbridge home.

Ewan McLachlan prosecuting said when police got to Evans’s home he was on the roof of his garage. He told them to get off his property and pointed the weapon towards Pc Robert Hinchliffe who tried to spray him with CS gas.

Police eventually managed to persuade Evans to come down but they found a plastic bottle containing ball bearing pellets on the roof and CS gas canisters for the gun in the house.

Mr McLachlan said Evans admitted having drunk five to seven pints of Fosters while out with his fiancée and her parents.

When they got home he argued with Miss Morris while he was having a bath and tried to drag her into it and put her head under water, while she was holding their child.

She then ran to his parents home with the child and he followed and began banging on the door threatening to shoot the windows through.

She agreed to return intending to get some dry clothing and Evans mother went with her, holding the child. Evans then came downstairs armed with a knife and grabbed the child from his mother.

He was told to put the knife down and during a struggle his mother took the child back and left. Miss Morris pushed the knife away and was cut on her little finger. He also bit her on the cheek before telling her to go and get their daughter, threatening to slit both their throats if she did not.

She returned to his parents house and the police were contacted but Evans followed and fired the ball bearing gun at the front door five times, shattering the glass.

He returned home and rang his parents before another visit to their house where he fired the gun four or five times at a front window, forcing those inside to seek refuge in the kitchen.

Mr McLachlan said Evans then returned to the front door and fired again. Two pellets struck his father on the neck causing pain and red marks, as he approached the door. Evans then went home.

Neil Murphy, for Evans, said his bizarre behaviour that night was totally out of character and he could only blame the “vast quantity” he had drunk.

He was fortunate that the officers had acted as they had facing a firearm, which they were not to know was an imitation, and had things run a different course Evans appreciated he could have been killed.

Evans, 21, of Botham Hall Road, Milnsbridge, admitted using an imitation firearm to prevent arrest, damage and common assault and battery.

Sentencing him, Judge James Spencer QC said he was fortunate that his family were standing by him and had forgiven him.

“That speaks highly of them.

“Had it stopped there I might well have been able to let you go home but you made your case impossible when the police arrived. You should have seen sense at that stage but instead like some idiot, you went on to the garage roof with your gun and your ammunition.”