A MAN who threatened to firebomb the home of his close friend has been jailed.

William Wilson Allan, 26, “went berserk” outside the house at 1.15am, York Crown Court heard.

He smashed up a neighbour’s car, threw some slate through the front room window and said he would “torch” the friend’s home, with the friend and his family inside.

Allan, of Leeman Road, York, pleaded guilty to threatening to cause criminal damage and two charges of criminal damage, all committed on November 24.

“You effectively went berserk,” Judge Simon Hickey told him as he jailed him for 18 months.

Allan had told the friend and daughter: “I am going to firebomb your house if I get bail, with you and your daughter and your mum and dad inside.”

Brooke Morrison, prosecuting, said the incident left the daughter terrified and fearing for her life and that of her father.

For Allan, Jessica Strange said he abused alcohol and drugs and had been drinking at the time of the offences.

Allan was arrested within hours of making the threats.

He has been in custody ever since, the court heard.

Ms Morrison said the close friend and his adult daughter were on their way to bed after saying goodbye to a visiting family with children when they noticed Allan outside.

He called the friend names, hit a vehicle in the street with the bottle in his hand and tried to get the friend to come outside the house.

“I will torch you out, I am going to smash your window,” Allan said.

“I will pour petrol down your letterbox and burn your house down with you and your daughter inside.”

Ms Morrison said the children were still in the street when Allan arrived and they saw at least some of the incident.

At one point Allan picked up a piece of slate and used it to smash the windows and wing mirror of a second car in the street by the house. It belonged to a neighbour, the court heard.

The damage cost £400 to repair.

Then Allan threw the slate through the house window.

Ms Strange said: “He is very concerned about the effect this (incident) has had on the complainant in this case.”

Allan was genuinely remorseful, she said. He couldn’t remember the incident.

Because he drank so much, he didn’t see situations in the same way as people who didn’t drink, Ms Strange told the court.

He was upset by the ending of a relationship and wasn’t yet ready to tackle his drinking and the impact his drinking had on others.

“He hopes time in custody will help him come to terms with that,” she said.

Allan was on a community order for two public order offences, an assault, causing criminal damage and two charges of theft during the incident.