A husband picked up two axes and waved them near his wife after she told him their marriage was over, a court heard.

David Coleman, of Park Road, Great Harwood, received the news at a friend’s barbecue and was also told his wife would be staying the night at her new boyfriend’s home, a judge was told.

When she returned to the family home the next day to collect her things Coleman ‘just lost it’ and picked up a small axe from their porch before getting a larger one from their shed, Burnley Crown Court heard. Neighbours spotted him ‘waving it around and shouting’ in his garden and police soon arrived to cordon off the street and arrest him.

Tom Lord, prosecuting, told the court how neighbours heard shouting at around 11.30am on June 22 this year and saw Coleman holding an axe.

When officers arrived he was ‘immediately compliant’ in putting down the axe and was arrested.

Under interview, he told police that his wife told him the day before the incident that she was leaving and was staying with her new boyfriend, the court heard.

He then went drinking around Clitheroe and returned home at around 4am, the court heard. Mr Lord said: “When he woke up he found a message from his wife saying she wanted to get in but the chain was on. He let her in and took her mobile phone off her and described himself as ‘just losing it’.”

The court heard that Coleman, 40, told police under interview: “It was like a kick in the teeth; the fact that she stopped at her boyfriend’s house then comes back to the matrimonial home.

“I think it’s stupid. What bugs me most is my marriage has gone. Ten years of my life gone.”

Darren Smith, defending, said the marriage break-up came ‘out of the blue’ and he wasn’t threatening his wife or himself with the axes. He told the court: “He was simply waving the axe around. In his words he just ‘completely lost his mind’.

“Thankfully he did in no way swing the axe towards his wife.”

Coleman pleaded guilty to affray and possessing a bladed article without lawful excuse. He was committed to prison for 10 months, suspended for 18 months with a supervision requirement and ordered to carry out 100 hours unpaid work.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Leeming QC told Coleman that he ‘reacted in a totally inappropriate way.