A COLCHESTER man burst into his ex-partner’s home and threatened to kill her and her children, a court heard.

Daniel Atkinson, 23, of Brook Street, brandished a knife while at the home of pregnant Zoe Gonthier at 6am on July 14 last year, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor David Pickersgill told the court Miss Gonthier barricaded herself in the bedroom with her six-year-old daughter and their son, aged one, because she believed Atkinson would hurt them.

He said he had threatened to kill himself, Miss Gonthier, his family and her children. He threw things around and stabbed his knife into a wall.

He added when police arrived, Atkinson let them in and they found Miss Gonthier, six months pregnant with Atkinson’s second child, still in the bedroom with a knife wedged under the door.

But when interviewed, Atkinson denied he had threatened her with a knife.

The court heard the couple, who had separated and were no longer living together at the time of the offence, were now back together again.

Atkinson, who had earlier pleaded guilty to affray, was handed a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years, along with a supervision requirement including the integrated domestic abuse programme and a Think First programme.

Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC told Atkinson: “You want to live happily together with your partner and children. That depends on how you behave.

“If you cannot sort yourself out and you keep on behaving like this, the suspended sentence is likely to be activated.”