A Sittingbourne man threatened to burn down a house after he and his girlfriend broke up.

Daryll Martin, 22, told his frightened ex, “if you smell burning it’s just me trying to kill you” during a family get together in August last year, a court heard.

At Medway Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Martin pleaded guilty to threatening to damage or destroy property.

The court heard Martin, of Trinity Road, had been in a relationship for about a year and had a child with his partner.

The pair decided to end their relationship and he was told to leave the property they were both in at the time.

Andrew Jones, for the prosecution, said Martin, an apprentice HGV driver, took the victim’s phone in order to delete his number.

She followed him into the kitchen to get her mobile, and saw him holding a knife.

Martin said the knife was for him, Mrs Jones told the court.

The victim fled upstairs and locked herself in a room, which Martin gained entry to, telling her: “If you smell burning it’s just me trying to kill you.”

Police were called and as officers tried to put him in handcuffs, he said: “I tell you what I will come back and I will burn this place down.”

In a statement, the victim said Martin had a history of controlling and coercive behaviour, which had become worse and more aggressive, "to the point he's holding a knife out to me with our daughter in the house".

She went on: “I don’t feel safe around Daryll and I don’t want to have my child in this environment feeling the same.”

Terry Knox, defending, said Martin was suffering from a “mental health episode” at the time and he had just been diagnosed with depression, but was not taking medication at that point.

He said that in many respects his client was “slightly autistic”, adding: “Many of us may think terrible thoughts but don’t act on them, let alone say them. He said those words in anger.”

He pointed out Martin, who had been drinking that evening, had not been charged with the incident involving the knife.

Martin is now taking his medication and Knox said there had been “positive changes” since, and Martin “wouldn’t recognise himself”, looking back to what happened.

He was given a conditional discharge, lasting a year, and was ordered to pay £106 in costs.

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