Mum feared child would be shot during day of violence in Sunderland

The woman was confronted by one man aiming an air rifle and another brandishing a machete outside her home in Sunderland last May.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the violent stand-off, which involved threats of someone being "sliced up" and an arson attack on the family home, had been sparked by an earlier fall out.

The victim feared she and her children would be shot.

In the hours after the frightening threats, a paving slab was thrown through her living room window.

During an earlier hearing, Scott Haddock, 23, of Plantation Road, Pennywell, who had been carrying the firearm, was jailed for 26 months.

Now, his accomplice Ian Spoors, 29, of no fixed address, has also been put behind bars.

Spoors admitted being armed with a machete and criminal damage at the house as well as an unrelated burglary offence carried out while he was on bail.

Judge Tim Gittins jailed Spoors for 18 months and told him: "You, in drink and having taken a significant volume of valium, decided it would be a good idea to support your co-accused Haddock in his actions, that might be described as revenge, or being a vigilante.

"Ultimately, it was taking the law into your own hands.

"That is unacceptable and will often, when the threat of violence is so great, lead to a prison sentence.

"The woman and her children, who were present at the house, were threatened with violence.

"You were armed with a machete, the other man with a firearm.

"She thought they were going to be shot during that incident."

Spoors and Haddock have both been ordered to stay away from the family and their home under a seven year restraining order.

The court heard while out on bail for the vigilante stand-off, Spoors carried out a burglary at a Sunderland home, which was later ransacked by other raiders.

The owner, who had been working away abroad at the time his home was targeted last September, had to cut his contract short and return to the UK.

Stuart Graham, defending, said Spoors was homeless and undergoing mounting problems at the time of the offences but has sought help to change.

Mr Graham said; "For the first time, everything is now stable."