AN ex-mercenary who threatened to kill police officers during a siege at his York flat escaped a jail sentence today.

York Crown Court was told Wilf Barlow, 40, was a loner with a personality disorder who suffered post-traumatic stress caused by his experiences with the British Army and as a mercenary in Croatia.

He had sparked a lengthy stand-off outside his home in Bramham Avenue, Chapelfields, during which he claimed to have a gun and threatened to harm himself and the police.

Recorder Andrew Robertson, QC, told Barlow that psychiatric reports showed the risk of him being a threat to the public was diminishing. He gave Barlow a two-year community rehabilitation order.

In January, paramedics had been called to the flat to deal with a suspected overdose after Barlow, who also suffered depression, called a neighbour to say he had been drinking and had taken tablets.

But when two police officers arrived, prosecutor Richard Wright told the court, Barlow became aggressive.

The paramedics asked them to leave while they calmed the situation. Barlow agreed to go to hospital, but as the paramedics left his home, he locked himself in, saying he wanted to die.

He smashed a glass panel in a door and stuck his head through, brandishing a six-inch kitchen knife.

Mr Wright said he had threatened police, saying: "Come up here if you want to be a hero. The first person through this door will die."

Barlow then told police he had a 9mm Browning pistol in the flat and he was not afraid to use it.

A police negotiator and a friend of Barlow's, Lee Moran, eventually got him to give himself up.

Barlow was convicted of affray for the incident at an earlier hearing.

Updated: 14:19 Monday, November 19, 2001