A MAN has been jailed for threatening to kill his estranged partner.

David Tindle made the chilling vows after he was arrested for shouting abuse at his ex in the street in Port Clarence, near Stockton.

The unemployed 30-year-old warned shocked police officers: "I'll go back there, and it's a threat . . . I'll burn the house down."

Tindle was the subject of a court order - designed to protect his former partner - when he abused her in the street in December.

He was also on a suspended prison sentence for a burglary in nearby Billingham, prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court.

Tindle was jailed for a total of 12 months and was told that it would have been longer if the threats had been made directly to the woman.

Judge Les Spittle told him: "They were appalling threats that were made. Quite frankly, it must have chilled even a police officer."

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said Tindle was "annoyed and frustrated" but accepts there was good reason for his arrest and he deserved jail.

"Mr Tindle understands this doesn't amount to mitigation, but he was coming down off amphetamine and had been drinking," he added.

Tindle, of Sycamore Terrace, Port Clarence, admitted making threats to kill and breaching a non-molestation order and suspended sentence.

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