An “emotionally immature” man who smashed up an ex-partner’s house with a shovel and set furniture on fire has been locked up for a year.

Sentencing Dean Wilkinson at Bradford Crown Court, His Honour Judge Andrew Hatton said his decision to resort to “a disgraceful course of conduct” involving damage and violence was “the adult version of stamping your foot in temper”.

Prosecutor Nathan Davis said Wilkinson, 37, of North Avenue, Manningham, Bradford, who appeared via video link from HMP Lincoln, had previously been in a relationship with the woman for just over a year but they had split up when he began to take drugs.

He turned up at her house just after 10pm on January 13 and used a shovel to smash the living room window and the glass panels of a door. The police were called but Wilkinson fled before they arrived.

He returned at 1.45am on January 24 and asked to talk to the woman but then “flipped”, and became verbally abusive, which prompted the woman to run away.

She returned when she became aware of smoke at her house. Wilkinson then chased her into the street, threw her to the ground and kicked her in the head.

He also took her phone and smashed it to prevent a 999 call to the police.

The woman later returned with police and saw her bed and bedding on fire in the garden. She told police she was “genuinely scared for her life”.

Wilkinson was arrested and answered “no comment” to all questions during an interview. He later pleaded guilty to criminal damage, arson, and assault by beating.

The court he had a lengthy criminal record for offences including criminal damage, battery, assault, and breaches of restraining orders.

Mitigating, Chloe Hudson said Wilkinson had “no thoughts at all” of wishing to rekindle the relationship and offered his apologies and assurances that the behaviour would not continue.

Judge Hatton said the victim was fortunate not to have been injured by flying glass during the “sustained incident”, which had left her “terrified”.

He said there was “an element of revenge” in Wilkinson’s actions towards her, and described him as “an emotionally immature individual”.

He jailed Wilkinson for a total of 52 weeks and imposed a five-year restraining order that prevents any contact with the victim except through solicitors.