A FORMER Territorial Army recruit, who armed himself with a knife to scare a violent man out of a woman's home, was today jailed for 18 months.

Jordan Conroy suffered three knife wounds, to his neck, hand and forearm, during a struggle with burly John Wilson.

Bradford Crown Court heard that 36-year-old Wilson, the son of a police officer, then stemmed the flow of blood from the other man's injuries and tried to persuade him to get medical help.

The court was told Mr Conroy had been in a relationship with Dee Metcalfe, who had ended it because he had been violent towards her and a restraining order had been made against him.

On March 28 this year, Mr Conroy, who had criminal convictions including for violence, turned up at Metcalfe's home, in Fieldhurst Court, Bierley, Bradford, saying he was homeless.

She felt she had no alternative but to accommodate him, but wanted him out of her house and enlisted the help of Wilson, who she knew through work.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said Wilson was a big man, intimidating in appearance. He said Metcalfe encouraged Wilson to threaten Mr Conroy to get him out of the house, but Wilson went further by taking a knife with him.

The judge said that Wilson confronted Mr Conroy, the knife must have been produced and he was injured.

But Mr Conroy later lied about how he had come by his injuries. After making a complaint to police, he failed to follow it up by assisting the prosecution or attending court as a witness.

Wilson, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty, at the earliest opportunity, to wounding.

His barrister, Abdul Iqbal QC, said his client, who was of previous good character, did not go to the house to inflict violence, but to ensure there was no more violence towards Metcalfe.

Mr Iqbal said Wilson joined the Territorial Army when he was 20 and served in Bosnia as part of a NATO operation, but was honourably discharged from the Army after he was diagnosed with epilepsy. He handed in testimonials from members of the Royal Engineers, who attended court to support Wilson.

Wilson had spent seven months in custody and will be released in the next few weeks.

Metcalfe, 30, pleaded guilty to a charge of encouraging or assisting an offence. She was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

Wilson and Metcalfe had originally been jointly charged with attempted murder. Judge Thomas recorded verdicts of not guilty on those charges.