A depressed man who went to his former girlfriend's home in the middle of the night and terrified her babysitter by poking a shotgun through a letter box has been jailed for two years.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Mark Hanson took the weapon and ammunition to the house in Cumberland Street, Skipton, last October.

Once there, he knocked on the front door and asked the babysitter to let him in.

Having passed the keys for the door through the letterbox, the babysitter - who had been looking after Hanson's two young children - then fled through a back window and called the police.

Hanson was arrested shortly after officers found a shotgun and 25 live cartridges in the backyard of his friend's house.

When interviewed, Hanson whose six-year relationship with Zoe Dixon had ended the previous July, described how he bought the gun illegally, saying that he might have used it to take his own life.

Hanson, 27, of Orchard Mills Cottages, Carleton, Skipton, pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing a firearm without a certificate.

Mitigating, Simon Hickey told the court that although Hanson was carrying the cartridges they were not placed in the gun.

"This was a young man extremely depressed and that's why he acted in that way. There was no intention to endanger anybody's life other than his own,'' he added.

He said that the incident had been sparked during that evening when a man who was "associated" with Miss Dixon made "unpleasant and threatening" remarks to him.

Mr Hickey added that because Hanson was stopped from seeing his children it had a great effect on him.

Judge Roderick Adams said the mitigating circumstances in the case were not ''exceptional enough'' to allow him to suspend the sentence.

He told Hanson: "Courts take a serious view of firearms offences. Long sentences of imprisonment are regularly imposed for them.''

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