A KNIFE-WIELDING husband subjected his wife to a terrifying six-hour ordeal in which he repeatedly threatened to kill her because he believed she had formed a new relationship.

Police had to break into the home of Louise Millington in the early hours to rescue her from Stephen Martin Millington.

He then barricaded himself into the kitchen and staged a 30-minute stand-off with officers, telling armed police to shoot him, York Crown Court heard.

Eventually, police managed to arrest him, after springing the trap he had set to try and drive a knife into his own chest, said Joseph Spencer, prosecuting.

Stephen Millington was suffering from depression which made him at times agitated and paranoid. The couple are now divorcing.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told him: “It is an extremely sad case.

“What happened on September 2 was a toxic mixture of anger, frustration and stress which combined to produce a very dramatic and frightening ordeal for your wife. You lost complete control that night of your judgement.”

Millington, 43, of Broadacres Garth, Carlton, pleaded guilty to making threats to kill and false imprisonment and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

He was also made subject to a lifelong restraining order banning him from any contact with his wife.

Mr Spencer told York Crown Court that Millington feared the break-up of his domestic life. He “snapped”, got a knife from the kitchen and took it into the bedroom where his wife was in bed.

In the hours that followed, he told her she would “never see” her friend again, made a countdown and motioned with the knife, making her scream, and went through her phone messages.

The court heard she managed to text her work colleague with the words: “phone police here he’s trying to kill me”.

But her husband threatened to kill her if police arrived and she phoned 999 to tell them not to come.

But officers went to the house because she sounded terrified and the 999 operator could hear screaming.

At the end of the call, the operator said: “Oh God, she’s cleared”. When police broke into the house, Millington, with the knife in his hand, was holding his wife by the neck, but she managed to escape and he made for the kitchen.

For Millington, Laura Addy said it would be difficult to find a defendant more remorseful for his actions.

He was eager to make amends by serving his punishment and wanted to apologise. On his release, he would leave the Selby area.