A WOMAN who held a knife to a teenager’s throat and threatened her has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

At a hearing at York Crown Court, homeless Amy Evans, 24, pleaded guilty to affray.

The court heard how she had borrowed trainers from the 15-year-old girl in December last year.

When asked for them back, she got angry, and went to the girl’s York home where she produced a kitchen knife with a 14-inch blade and held it to her throat.

The youngster’s step-father pushed Evans away, at which point she threw the knife to the ground and offered to fight without weapons. She was later arrested on January 4.

Defending Evans, Steven Grattage said in 2008 she had been attacked by a man wielding a hammer in York, and had subsequently needed reconstructive surgery on her face.

He said: “This is a young woman with a chaotic lifestyle, without any fixed abode, who was distressed after the attack and felt she needed some protection.”

He said she felt she had been a good friend to the teenager and “quite simply she felt angry”.

“She went with vengeful feelings to that place….not with the intent of hurting anybody; with a knife she always carried. She made a bad decision to get out that knife, and it was thrown away and she offered to fight without it.”

He said she was without a home at that time and had been gone without sleep for three nights, keeping herself going with the drugs mephedrone, also known M-Cat, and amphetamine.

He said she was a very different person now, that she had got herself clean from drugs and had put plans in place for the future.

Sentencing her, Recorder Andrew Lees, said: “You must understand this offence... is a very serious matter because of the knife you had on you and used in the affray. It was a potentially lethal weapon with which you threatened a young girl of 15 who had done nothing to you in relation to violence or threats. When you held that knife to her throat it must have been terrifying …you must understand the terror she felt as a result of that.”