A SERIAL offender was jailed for nine months following a knife-related drama at the New Forest home of his former partner.

Their 18 month relationship had deteriorated after the birth of their daughter six weeks earlier. After they had rowed, Katie Shields told Leroy Phillips to get out of her Ringwood flat.

Phillips, however, locked the front door and bit her right hand. When she went to comfort their baby daughter, he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut up the cot's bed sheet.

Prosecutor Tim Dracass described how she retreated to stand by the knife drawer in the kitchen and he shouted "Stab me, the only way you're getting out of here is if I'm dead.'' Matters temporarily calmed down after she returned to the living room but then another row blew up and he pointed a knife with a five inch serrated blade at her before pressing it hard against her left arm.

The incident ended after he insisted that Ms Shields and their baby had to accompany him to get a prescription from a local surgery but there she took the opportunity to run off and alert a health visitor.

In an impact statement, Ms Shields described Phillips as "unstable and unpredictable'' and she wanted him out of her life.

Said to have 28 previous convictions for 91 previous offences, Phillips, 27, of Meadow Close, Burley, admitted two charges of causing actual bodily harm.

He was jailed for nine months but because of the time he has spent on remand, he was almost immediately released from custody.

Mitigating at Southampton Crown Court, Richard Tutt conceded that although it had been a frightening incident, her injuries were at the bottom end of the scale and she had not required medical treatment.