THE son of a former Mayor is today behind bars for three years after he pulled a gun in a North Yorkshire courtroom.

Dock officer Gary Aldsworth feared he would be shot or killed when "anti-social" Richard Gareth William Davies, 18, produced an 8mm blanks-firing handgun at Harrogate Magistrates Court on January 9.

The bench was just about to give the neighbourhood menace his first jail term.

When Davies appeared at York Crown Court yesterday on a firearms charge, Judge Paul Hoffman said: "There must be a deterrent sentence to make it plain ... that those who bring weapons into court and menace either the judges or the magistrates or those charged with their security will be dealt with by significant sentences."

He added two-and-a-half years to the six-month sentence magistrates imposed after Mr Aldsworth and fellow dock officer David Skipworth overpowered and disarmed Davies in Harrogate.

Davies, of Harrogate Road, Minskip, near Harrogate, pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to make a person fear unlawful violence.

At Harrogate, he had admitted at least 13 offences against his neighbours, family and others, including hoax 999 calls, threatening behaviour, assaulting police, burglary and possessing an offensive weapon.

He is the son of a former Mayor of Boroughbridge.

His barrister, John Carroll, twice tried unsuccessfully to persuade the judge to adjourn sentence to see if Davies could be put on probation so he could receive intensive treatment for the personality disorder he has suffered from since he was three.

But the judge said the offence was far too serious.

"Both your family and the public are at risk," he told Davies. "Your anti-social behaviour has been increasing in an alarming way and on an escalating basis."

In December, Minskip residents were so concerned about delays in sentencing Davies they complained to Harrogate Magistrates Court.

Updated: 09:59 Saturday, January 20, 2001