by Paul Hooper

Love-sick Malcolm Henderson couldn't accept the St Valentine's Day jilting by his teenage girlfriend.

In the following four days in February the 21-year-old Herne Bay man:

* BOMBARDED her with 300 text messages

* DIALLED her mobile phone 700 times

* CLAIMED to have swallowed up to 70 tablets

* TRIED to stab himself

* THREATENED to throw himself off Reculver Tower and

* CHASED after her in a car shouting: "Why are you doing this to me?"

The drama ended in an armed showdown between the spurned young man and his ex-lover's new boyfriend, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Henderson, of Reculver Road, Herne Bay was given a suspended jail sentence after admitting affray, harassment and dangerous driving.

Prosecutor James Bilsland told how Henderson had been in an 18-month relationship with Amy Heath, 18.

"On February 15 she told him she wanted a break and by the 17th had made a decision that she wanted the relationship to end.

"It seems that Henderson wasn't particularly happy about that and he immediately said he wanted to kill himself."

He said the couple later met for a chat in the car park of Toys R Us in Canterbury when Henderson became angry.

Mr Bilsland added: "Henderson then followed her to Sainsburys and tried to give her a bracelet he had bought - saying it was a Valentine's Day present - and asked for another chance."

He then followed her to the fast food restaurant McDonald's and then back to Sainsbury's where he got into her car begging her for another chance before punching the dashboard and headbutting the passenger window.

Henderson then told her: "I don't know what I have done wrong. I am going home to kill myself."

The prosecutor said that after sending her a text saying he was going to throw himself from Reculver Tower he later made an attempt to stab himself. Then he claimed he had swallowed 60 or 70 tablets.

Ms Heath drove to work on Saturday February 19 at TK Maxx but received a called from a friend telling her not to return to her parked car because Henderson's car was parked next to it.

An hour later she returned to the car park and found a note which read: "I am sorry. I am sorry. I love you."

As she was reading it, Henderson arrived and blocked the car park exit before driving at Amy's friends, Dan Custance - described as her current boyfriend - and pal Brett Appleyard.

Mr Bilsland added: "They had to jump out of the way. Miss Heath drove away with Mr Appleyard in her vehicle."

Henderson then drove in his car alongside her car shouting: "Why are you doing this? What have I done wrong?"

The prosecutor added: "She was scared and had to exceed the speed limit to get away along the Ramsgate Road but Henderson's car overtook her and stopped it across the road.

"Miss Heath had to drive on the pavement but Henderson again blocked the road at a set of traffic lights. He got out of his vehicle and ran towards hers. He then produced a knife shouting at Mr Appleyard: "I am going to stab you".

Mr Custance had earlier armed himself with a brake disc after Amy said Henderson had kept a knife in his car.

Mr Alexander Rooke, defending: "Four days in the scale of a typical boyfriend-girlfriend break-up is short. And the way she broke up was, with hindsight, perhaps was not the best way to end the relationship.

" To him it offered a glimmer of hope and it was to that he was reacting. That's why he was phoning her repeatedly, that's why he wanted to talk to her, that's why he behaved in a foolishly immature manner."

He was given an eight month jail sentence suspended for 12 months, ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for a year.

He was also made the subject of a restraining order prohibiting from contacting his ex-girlfriend.