Charnock Street in Deepdale where the row happened Pic: Google

A man chased a stranger down a Preston street with a meat cleaver after throwing him out of his girlfriend’s house.

Callum Major, 27, was angry the man had returned from a night out with his girlfriend – and left Major behind.

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Preston Crown Court heard all three were drunk and Major started a petty row with his girlfriend, who said she had not told him they were leaving as she had lost her phone.

The other man – who has not been identified – started calling Major names and told him “I’ve been in the army, I will hurt you.”

A scuffle broke out between the pair at the house in Charnock Street, Deepdale, and Major was punched.

Major chased the other man out of the house but when the man returned to collect his phone, Major picked up the meat cleaver and chased him out of the house.

At the time of the offence on March 22, Major was spending most of his time at the student house, which his girlfriend shared with friends.

He pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in public on the basis there had been an altercation and he had been hit by a man he did not know before he picked up the weapon.

Judge Pamela Badley, sentencing, said offences of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place ordinarily carry an immediate jail sentence.

But the judge accepted Major, of Brow Hay, Bamber Bridge, has no previous convictions and had acted out of character.

She told him: “Over the last several years there has been a concern within all areas about people resorting to threats using sharp objects.

“Here, you and another person found yourselves in contention with each other. Undoubtedly you had been hit by that other person and the temperature rose between you. There was considerable aggression.

“The fact is that the patience of the public has worn thin, particularly because objects such as this are available to everybody and if you threaten somebody with a knife it very easily escalates into use of a knife.”

Major was handed a four month sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out a 25 day rehabilitation activity requirement. A charge of affray was left to lie on the file.