A MAN who threatened to cut police officers’ throats during a sit-in at his ex-wife’s Poole home has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Major Matthew Wright, 47, downed 12 cans of lager before staging the sit-in, during which he hurled a radio and a bowl out of the property, Bournemouth Crown Court was told.

After a 30-minute stand-off, two firearms officers entered the property and arrested the distressed dad, of Arrowsmith Lane, in Wimborne, prosecutor Simon Jones said.

He said: “Jones was banging on the window shouting: ‘If you come in I will cut you’ “He threw a china bowl of food at a PC, turned the gas on and the microwave and was ready to kill himself.

“He was threatening to cut officers’ throats as he was banging on the windows.”

Before this, he had been threatening to hit and pour boiling water over former wife Susan Wright. She left at around 5pm.

Wright pleaded guilty to the counts of unlawful violence and damaging property, including a police cell, at Bournemouth Magistrates Court last October.

Mark Ruffell, mitigating, said his client gets on well with his family but drinks too much.

“He has problems that he needs counselling for,” Mr Ruffell said.

“He has attempted suicide in the past.”

Wright’s 25-year-old daughter was in court to testify for his good character.

Nikita Wright, a student, said: “He needs help to get off the drink and drugs. If he is helped he can become the man that he was, a loving, caring, devoted dad and husband.”

Imposing an eight-month suspended jail term, Judge Samuel Wiggs said: “What you did was potentially very dangerous, extremely frightening and serious.”