Blackpool man jailed after threatening to kill a toddler in Fleetwood

Dan Constantin Hamciuc, 29, of Cheltenham Road, Blackpool, also told the tot's mum: "You're going to die tonight" before launching a violent attack on her outside her home, Preston Crown Court was told.

The victim, who had shut the toddler into the address in Fleetwood in order to protect her, was dragged by her hair and pulled her to the ground, where Hamciuc punched her several times, and kicked her to the chest and stomach.

During the incident, on October 19, the defendant then took her by the feet and tried to drag her across the garden, only stopping his attack when a neighbour intervened.

He is now beginning a two year jail term and has been given a 10 year restraining order.

Prosecuting, Jack Troup said : "They were partners for one year and the relationship ended two weeks prior.

"Since the split she describes the defendant contacting her trying to rekindle the relationship, attending her house but being denied access."

He said earlier in the evening she had spotted Hamciuc at the bottom of her garden and he told her he had "been watching" and had seen a man leave her property.

He asked to use the toilet, and she later found him rifling through her belongings before locking himself in her toddler's room and telling her he would "pay someone to assault her".

At this point the woman's mother returned with her toddler and told him to leave.

Mr Troup added: "We then come to 11pm when she is with her daughter in the front room. She heard a noise in the kitchen which startled her."

The frightened mum armed herself with a sledgehammer but Hamciuc took it from her.

The quick thinking mum, scared for her daughter's safety, managed to lure him outside by leaving the address after he threatened to kill the tot.

She was then attacked until a neighbour startled him and he ran away.

In a victim statement the woman said she took a month off work due to pain from her injuries and had to ask for help from her daughter's dad to care for her.

Defending, Claire Larton said many colleagues had provided references for him, that he had no previous convictions, and said he was in a "heightened emotional state".

Judge Philip Parry said the woman had been "utterly petrified".

He said: "Having effectively tricked your way into the house she found you rummaging through her drawers.

"You were showing signs of being unstable and paranoid and she wanted you well out of the house."

"It must have chilled her blood frankly to see you uninvited in the home, no doubt wishing to take up where you left off four hours earlier.

"So desperate was she to draw you away from her daughter that she left the home. Her hope and her wish to do so, which was very intelligent of her, was to draw you outside of the house."

He added: "You were angry, jealous and paranoid.

"You had the knife in your possession in what I consider to be very dangerous circumstances."