A KNIFEMAN who sparked a siege and threatened police at his Accrington home has been jailed for eight months.

The incident was sparked when ‘troubled and drunken’ Jason Gibson, 33, had tried to strangle his wife who he married on his release after a year in a Scottish prison.

Police had to force entry in front of a gathering crowd after Gibson, who was half-naked, barricaded himself in with a sofa and mattress, Burnley Crown Court heard.

The defendant, who had a carving knife in each hand and two down the front of his pants, warned the fully armoured officers: “I’m tooled up. Anybody coming through the door will get it.”

He was at the top of the stairs, breathing heavily and staring at the police, when he brandished the knives and pointed one directly at an officer.

Gibson was finally detained after he crawled along the floor with the weapons and one brave officer threw down his shield and jumped on top of him to pin him down.

The defendant, of Craven Street, Accrington, who had 111 previous convic-tions, had admitted affray and battery in April and a judge told him there would “quite rightly,” be public outrage if he was not sent to custody.

Recorder Graham Know-les said: “You risked death to these officers. That’s the reality if you hold knives.”

Recorder Knowles added although Gibson had had “very real personal diff-iculties” a psychiatrist reported he had been drunk but was not in a state that could have impaired his intent and had not been suffering a mental disorder.

Mercedeh Jabbari, prose-cuting, told the court the defendant’s wife Kimb-erley, who he married in December 2006, would say he suffered manic depression, but had turned his life around.

She went out for the evening on April 11, told the defendant she had spent the evening with another male and he started crying.

The pair began drinking vodka. In the early hours, Gibson pinned his wife to the bed, put both hands around her throat and started to strangle her.

When Gibson was taken to the police station he said he had just “lost it.”

Sara Dodd, defending, said the incident was most unattractive.

Miss Dodd said:”In my submission the only person he was going to hurt with these knives would have been himself.”