A MARYPORT couple’s children were left terrified as a man banged aggressively on their front door and screamed at their father.

Keith Henderson, 33, who was under the influence of alcohol at the time, banged on the door so hard that he damaged its frame, Carlisle Crown Court heard. He pleaded guilty to using threatening behaviour.

Prosecutor Estelle Chambers outlined the facts.

It happened at around 8.30pm on May 10 on a residential street in Maryport, when the couple and their three children were at home, said the prosecutor.

Referring to the man who was threatened and who lived at the house, Miss Chambers said: “He was outside, fixing a neighbour’s car while [his partner] remained in the house with their three children.”

The man saw Henderson and two females walking along the street towards him. “The defendant was screaming loudly, shouting the words: ‘Come on then!” said Miss Chambers.

At this point, the man turned to his friend and remarked that something was about to “kick off.” He then went back into his home.

The prosecutor continued: “A couple of minutes later, there was banging and kicking on the front door, with the defendant shouting: ‘Come on then – get yourself outside now.’ He was kicking the door so hard he thought the door would break.

“At that point, his partner called 999.”

The man in the house went upstairs to check on the three children and found them “screaming and upset by the defendant’s behaviour,” said Miss Chambers. The man looked out of the window and saw Henderson walking away.

He was still shouting but the couple could not hear what he was saying.

When they later checked the front door, they found the frame damaged and marks on the glass parts of the door. Miss Chambers said police could smell intoxicants on Henderson when they arrested him.

The offence was aggravated by there being three children in the house at the time. The court heard that the conviction puts Henderson in breach of a suspended jail term imposed earlier on the defendant for dangerous driving.

He committed that offence in 2019.

The defendant’s barrister pointed out that Henderson, of Ellenfoot Drive, Maryport, was a carer for five children and suggested that he would benefit from rehabilitation.

Recorder Michael Blakey told the defendant: “I don’t know what has gone on between you and [the victim]. But it has to stop.

“Your behaviour was disgraceful on the day in question, particularly given your state of intoxication. There were children in the house who were clearly terrified about what was going on and what was going to happen.

“What aggravates the situation is that you committed this during the course of a suspended sentence for the dissimilar offence of dangerous driving.”

The judge said that because the offence was different to the one that attracted the suspended sentence, he would not activate it. He imposed a 12-month community order, which will include 15 rehabilitation activity days.

The defendant will be subjected to a two year restraining order banning any contact with the victim. Nor can he go to the street in Maryport where the man he shouted at lives.