AN ANGRY son threatened to slash his step-father with a knife and burn his house down after being kicked out after the death of his mother.

Liam Harris, 27, shouted “I will slash you” while waving a knife and “I will burn the house down” at his step-father Peter Horrocks on March 23.

Bolton Crown Court heard Harris was kicked out of the house following his mother's death last year and felt it was his step-father's fault that he was living on the streets and sofa surfing.

Mr Horrocks called the police who arrested Harris and found a knife he had discarded in the grass in Birch Avenue, Westhoughton.

Harris was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday at Bolton Crown Court for threatening Mr Horrocks with the blade.

When sentencing Judge Timothy Stead said in the “present climate” of escalating knife crime it would be “unusual” to do anything other than imprison Harris.

The court heard from Verity Quaite, prosecuting, that Mr Horrocks and Harris had an ongoing dispute over the ownership of Mr Horrocks home in Birch Avenue.

Harris’ mother married Mr Horrocks when Harris was five but she died in January 2018 and Mr Horrocks evicted Harris from the house.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Mr Horrocks objected to Harris’ drug use.

Miss Quaite said: “The complainant had made it clear the defendant was no longer welcome...On March 23 the defendant attended the house several times. He’d slept in the garden overnight and appeared at the window in the morning.

“The complainant invited him in for a drink and something to eat.”

Mr Horrocks agreed to give Harris a quilt to use because he had no fixed abode but then Harris refused to leave the property saying it was Mr Horrocks fault he had nowhere to live said Miss Quaite.

Mr Horrocks called the police and left the house and at this point Harris made his threats from some distance away.

Imran Ali, defending, told the court: “It’s a very sad case the defendant spent 25 years of his life, raised in the complainants home address.”

Mr Ali said: “He feels aggrieved.”

“Following his mother’s death he accepts he has struggled,” said Mr Ali, “Living on the streets, sofa surfing.”

Mr Ali highlighted that Harris had cooperated with the police when they arrived and made a full and frank admission during his interview.

He told the court Harris had previously been sectioned for six months prior to his mother’s death and suffered with anxiety and depression.

Judge Stead took into account Harris’ cooperation with the police, that his threats had been made from around 30 feet away and his lack of home.

As well as giving him a custodial sentence Judge Stead imposed a five year restraining order on Harris preventing him from communicating directly or indirectly with Mr Horrocks or going to his house in Westhoughton.