Leeds man Tasered by police after threatening his mother with a meat cleaver

Police dropped Nathan David Stawman at his mother’s home in Swinnow after being forced to remove him from his girlfriend’s because of his erratic behaviour on the evening of April 22.

Prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court that Stawman has a history of causing trouble after drinking and taking drugs.

On that night, his mother said he was “jovial” to begin with after arriving there, but his attitude changed and he became aggressive and angry.

He picked up the kitchen table then a chair above his head and threatened to throw it at her.

The 40-year-old then grabbed the meat cleaver with a 7” blade and a carving knife from the kitchen drawer.

Stawman tried to stop his mother leaving and tried to take her phone to prevent her calling the police. However, she already had.

One of the male occupants in the house then came down the stairs and tried to tackle Stawman, who refused to let go of the knives.

When officers arrived they ordered him to drop them, he ignored them so they deployed the Taser.

However, he continued to be aggressive and said the male occupant: “I’m going to rip your heart out.”

He later admitted he had been drinking and taking cocaine, but said he could not remember what had happened.

Stawman, of Wellstone Avenue, Swinnow, has 22 convictions for 37 offences.

He admitted affray and possession of cocaine after a small quantity was found on him when he was arrested.

Mitigating, Craig Sutcliffe said: “This is a man who is not heavily convicted for violent offences.”

He said he had recently lost a close relative, and issues from his childhood continued to haunt him, which led him to drink and drugs.

He said that his partner is also expecting his child, and that work was waiting for him as a shop fitter.

Judge Simon Phillips KC said: “Your behaviour that day was, to put it bluntly, extremely concerning.

"This could have ended in catastrophic injury.”

He gave him 21 months’ jail, suspended for 24 months, 100 hours of unpaid work, fined £100 for the cocaine possession and told him to pay £750 costs