A woman with mental health problems threatened her sister with a knife and graffitied her house walls, a court heard.

Victoria Beard told Elizabeth Beard that she was ‘feeling sick and had begun to hear voices’ before damaging the property and waving around a 12-inch bladed kitchen knife.

Elizabeth had invited her younger sister to her home on Albert Street in Clayton-le-Moors on January 22 following an earlier ‘confrontation’ between the pair and ‘felt her sister needed some support and assistance’.

Prosecutor Emma Kehoe told Burnley Crown Court that the defendant arrived in a ‘tearful state’ and they had a ‘long chat’ before ordering food.

The court heard how ‘everything seemed to be okay’ until around 10pm when Beard told her sister ‘she was feeling sick and had begun to hear voices’.

Miss Kehoe said this was an ‘indication her sister was going downhill and was going to have an episode’.

When ‘concerned’ Elizabeth asked Beard to leave she ‘lost her temper’ and snatched the victim’s phone before putting it down her bra.

Beard was ‘shouting and screaming’ and used spray paint on some of the house walls.

Miss Kehoe said Beard later went into the kitchen and got a 12-inch bladed knife and was ‘waving it around’.

The court heard how Elizabeth was ‘terrified and never been so scared in her life’ and suffered a ‘panic attack’.

Beard left the property still carrying the knife and a neighbour tried to calm her down before police arrived.

Beard, 22, of Beech Grove, Accrington, pleaded guilty to affray and criminal damage and was given a two-year community order with a supervision requirement and a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland QC said: “Sadly you have mental problems which from time to time mean you behave in a way which is completely unacceptable.

"You must understand this sort of behaviour is not right and cannot simply be passed over.

“To use a knife anywhere near anybody is exceptionally dangerous and fortunately in this case nothing by way of serious injury result.

“If things had been very slightly different it could have been truly appalling.

“You offended in this way because you were ill and because you could not control yourself at the time.”