A former soldier who imprisoned his girlfriend and was later arrested after a five-hour siege at his home has been jailed for four years.
Adam Caird (26) had an argument with his then-girlfriend after a late-night drinking session.
He threw her telephone across the room and stamped on it, before pushing her on to the bed and pinning her down.
Leicester Crown Court heard on Friday how Caird was shouting and screaming incoherently, having got drunk and taken the illegal stimulant MCAT.
Prosecutor James Bide-Thomas said: "She managed to wriggle free and attempted to escape via the upstairs window, but the defendant dragged her back and pulled her down on to the bed.
"She punched him in the face and tried to escape, but the defendant again grabbed her and pinned her against the door."
The woman managed to escape by kneeing Caird in the groin and climbing through a ground-floor window, running barefoot to her mother's house dressed in her pyjamas.
When police arrived at the house in Braunstone Frith, Leicester, at 7.50am on September 30 last year, after the woman had fled, they could hear shouting, banging and smashing noises coming from inside.
Mr Bide-Thomas said: "The defendant appeared at the first-floor window. In his left hand, he had a nine-inch knife and in his right hand, a claw hammer.
"The police decided it was too dangerous to go in.
"The defendant said, 'Any of you come in here and I'll kill you'."
After about three hours, Caird started threatening to "light the place up".
He poured nail varnish remover on the window sill and set a curtain alight before then extinguishing it himself with a duvet, suffering burns in the process.
He eventually came outside and was arrested at 12.40pm after the police had played him a recorded message from his girlfriend.
The court heard that Caird, who has two children from a previous relationship, attempted suicide in prison and was later diagnosed as having a "personality disorder" related to abuse he suffered in his childhood.
He pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, arson, criminal damage and affray, as well as two charges of common assault against his girlfriend and another man a week earlier.
Catarina Sjolin, representing Caird, of The Drove, Collyweston, Northamptonshire, said: "He recognises how terrifying an incident the false imprisonment must have been.
"It was a scary incident for the police and went on for some time, but threats were from a distance and he was persuaded to give himself up.
"This was someone who had lost control of himself in the drink and the drugs.
"He has hurt a person he loved and his actions have shocked and scared him."
Sentencing Caird, Judge Simon Hammond said: "It must have been an absolutely terrifying ordeal."
