A man pleaded with a court for leniency after claiming his girlfriend was expecting his child.

But a suspicious judge spotted the woman sitting in the public gallery and asked her: "Are you or have you ever been pregnant?"

And when the woman answered “no”, Jack Humphries shouted from the dock: “That’s what she told me!”

But after a pregnant pause, the 22-year-old received a two year jail sentence at Canterbury Crown Court.

Humphries, of Bunkers Hill, Dover, had admitted assaulting his mother, causing criminal damage at her home and later making threats to kill.

The court heard how he had taken drink and drugs and began pushing, spitting and threatening his mother before stabbing furniture.

Judge Rupert Lowe heard how after being taken to hospital, Humphries told staff he was going to stamp on his mother’s head and police were alerted.

During an interview by a probation officer Humphries asserted his girlfriend was pregnant but the judge then questioned the woman – and was told she wasn’t.

Judge Lowe told him: “You seem to blame everything on your mother but you took a number of knives out during the argument and began stabbing the furniture.”