A JUDGE has shown mercy to a man who terrified his girlfriend at knifepoint after hearing how he had lost his former partner and one child in a death-leap tragedy at a Dartmoor beauty spot.

Neil Patterson was still suffering the emotional affects of the death of 24-year-old Katherine Hooper and their five-year-old son Joshua when he threatened his new partner with a kitchen knife.

The tragic couple’s other child, two-year-old Sam, was found dead at their home in Paignton. The cause of his death was never established.

Patterson, 55, was spared an immediate jail term and ordered to receive bereavement therapy as part of a probation supervision by a judge at Exeter Crown Court.

A probation report revealed how Patterson was struggling to cope with the emotional turmoil of the devastating loss of Katherine, formerly of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, who jumped 80ft to her death at Haytor rocks with Joshua on her shoulders in July 2013.

His inability to come to terms with his grief contributed to him losing control and grabbing the knife when he and new partner Samantha Millson ended their relationship in February this year.

Mrs Millson fled her flat in Exmouth in terror and was rescued by bouncers at a nearby pub in St Andrews Road.

Patterson, of Oakleigh Road, Horsham, Sussex, admitted threatening behaviour after more serious charges of assault and making threats to kill were dropped.

He was jailed for 18 weeks, suspended for two years, and ordered to undertake rehabilitation activities including grief counselling by Recorder Mr Paul Dunkels QC.

He also made a restraining order forbidding any further contact with the victim.

He told Patterson: ‘I accept, as does Mrs Millson, that your reaction was related to the personal tragedy which you experienced – but that does not excuse your behaviour.’

Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said on the night of the attack the couple had been drinking heavily before she told him she did not want to continue with him. He became upset.

‘He took a kitchen knife. He pointed it at her and told her to sit down. He kept holding it towards her in a stabbing motion and he said ‘you and I are going to die tonight’.

‘Mrs Millson says she was terrified he would kill her. He repeated the words and at one time dug the knife into his own leg. He put it behind his back and when he brought it back she saw his finger was bleeding.’