A MAN has appeared in court accused of threatening to burn a woman's house down by petrol bombing it.

Steven Brazier, of Cowley Close, Dorchester, denied making threats to damage or destroy property, using violence to secure entry into a premises, causing criminal damage to a letterbox and harassment without violence, by making unwanted visits to her place of work, phoning her at work and sending her an excessive number of text messages.

A Molotov cocktail is a term used to describe a petrol bomb.

Three of the offences are alleged to have taken place at an address in Sandown, on the Isle of Wight, between January 6-8 this year.

The 37-year-old, formerly of Hornbeam Square, Ryde, on the island, elected to stand trial at the Isle of Wight Crown Court.

He was bailed by Isle of Wight magistrates to reappear for a plea and trial preparation hearing at the higher court on April 26.