A drunken man armed with an axe went on a Christmas Day “rampage of damage,” setting fire to a car and smashing up two others, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Richard Brown started a blaze that damaged a blue Ford Escort and set about a white Ford Mondeo and a blue Toyota Yaris with the axe in a random spree of damage.

Brown, 41, of Huddersfield Road, Brighouse, was a chronic alcoholic who had no recollection of the incident, his barrister said.

He pleaded guilty to arson, two offences of criminal damage, having a bladed article in Malham Road,  and using racially abusive words and behaviour at Calderdale Royal Hospital.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford told the court that £3,500 worth of damage was caused to the Ford Escort, £1,000 damage to the Mondeo and £75 damage to the Yaris, all in the early hours of Christmas Day, 2019, after Brown had been to a party.

The vehicles were left in a car park overnight when Brown struck at around 5.45am. He wasn’t known to any of the cars’ owners, it was a random damage spree.

The police were alerted and ordered Brown to drop the axe but it had to be forcibly removed from him.

He was seen to be injured and taken by officers to Calderdale Royal Hospital, where he used bad language and made racist comments while waiting in the accident and emergency department.

Aubrey Sampson said in mitigation that Brown was a chronic alcoholic who had been drinking since he was 13 to cope with the problems he had growing up in Northern Ireland.

He was so drunk that he could remember nothing of the attack on the cars.

Brown was very sorry and had stayed out of trouble since. He was very willing to comply with any community penalty imposed by the court.

Judge Jonathan Rose said the offences were “deeply troubling.”

Brown had rained blows on the vehicles with an axe after setting one of them on fire.

He could have injured a police officer or a member of the public with the weapon while committing “the rampage of damage.”

“It was just wanton damage for the sake of it,” Judge Rose said.

But Brown was battling his alcoholism and had stayed out of trouble for the 17 months since the incident.

He was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a six month Alcohol Treatment Requirement, a rehabilitation activity requirement and 180 hours of unpaid work.