A jealous and controlling man who threatened to kill his ex-partner in breach of a court order for menacing her with a machete has been jailed for three years.

Johnathan Williams said he’d stab the woman and whoever she was with after ringing her in defiance of a restraining order, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Williams, on remand in Leeds Prison, had carried out “a campaign of violence” against her, prosecutor Mark Stephenson said.

The court heard she was having her nails done at a friend’s house on June 6 last year when he demanded to know where she was.

He called her names on the phone when she said she was going out later, and threat-ened to get a knife and kill her and whoever she was with.

She believed that he would carry out the threat, Mr Stephenson said.

Williams, 44, of Huddersfield Road, Halifax, pleaded guilty to making a threat to kill and breach of a restraining order.

The court heard that the offences were committed in breach of a 16-month suspended sentence order for an affray in which he threatened his victim with a machete.

Williams had 26 convictions for 81 offences on his record, including numerous breaches of court orders.

Vincent Blake-Barnard said in mitigation that Williams never intended to harm the woman. He knew the relationship was over and he had been held in custody since last June.

Recorder Jason Pitter QC labelled him jealous and controlling.

He was jailed for 30 months for making a threat to kill and breach of the restraining order with six months of the suspended sentence order activated to run consecutively.

The restraining order is without limit of time.