A DRUNK man armed with meat cleaver and an axe banged on a Carlisle woman's front door, and then told her: "I'm going to kill you - you'll get this through your skull.

Less than a month later, Shaun Bennett, 52, returned to the terrified woman's house in Morton with what she feared was another weapon hidden beneath his sweatshirt and demanded she come outside because it was his ambition to kill her.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Bennett, of Highfield Avenue, Morton, admitted two counts of possessing a weapon in a public place and two allegations of affray.

He was jailed for two years.

Prosecutor David Traynor outlined how the victim had been at her home at 4.30pm on June 27 last year when she heard a banging on her front door.

She looked out of her front window and saw the defendant, someone she had known for 23 years and who she knew had an issue with alcohol.

"He was standing on her path," said the barrister.

"In his left hand he had a meat cleaver, which was six to eight inches long.

"In his right hand he had an axe, which he was using as a walking stick."

It was at this point that Bennett made his threat to bury the axe in the woman's head.

As he walked away from the house, he chillingly added: "This is not over."

Later that day, said Mr Traynor, Bennett sent a text message to a friend of the woman, referring to 'a grass', and repeating his threat to bury the meat cleaver in the woman's head.

Police found the defendant at his home address, where he refused to come downstairs.

"Officers used a taser to bring him under control," said Mr Traynor, describing how that meat cleaver was on the floor next to the defendant's feet, while a knife was found stuck into a door-frame where he stood.

Bennett denied visiting the woman's house and was released on bail, the police having told him not to visit his victim's home.

On July 6, the defendant was admitted to the Carleton Clinic psychiatric hospital.

Mr Traynor said: "He remained there until July 16, and it appears that while at the clinic he was still making threats to [the woman], including that he would throw acid at her.

"Despite that, he was released and allowed to go on his way."

The following day, Bennett again went to the woman's house, and after banging on the window announced: "Come outside. You have to die. Now it's my ambition. I'm going to kill you."

The woman was so scared she was shaking.

In her victim impact statement, she said Bennett's behaviour had made her so ill she was no longer able to go out.

"But she wants to put it behind her and get on with her life," said Mr Traynor.

Rachel Fuax, for Bennett, said he had become sober during the six months he had since spent in prison.

"He has a job and it's a relatively well paid in prison and he is trusted and respected by inmates and prison staff alike...He wants to lead a sober and law-abiding life." She said he was not better placed than ever to do that.

Judge James Adkin told the defendant: "It's not the first time you have been before the court for drunken aggression towards others...I take the view that you present a serious risk of presenting yourself as an aggressive and intimidating individual in the community when drunk and armed with weapons."

A jail sentence was therefore inevitable.

As well as the jail term, the judge imposed a restraining order which will forbid any contact with his victim, and forbids him from going to Ellesmere Way and Lyndhurst Gardens, both in Morton. "Were you to breach that restraining order, you should expect an immediate custodial sentence," added the judge.