A jilted boyfriend has been jailed for gatecrashing his ex partner's birthday party and threatening two of her male guests with a knife.
Dale Strange tried to organise a cover-up by setting up a false alibi and was recorded on a prison phone as he offered witnesses £1,000 apiece to change their stories.
Strange, aged 25, had been drinking at a pub in Exeter before lying in wait at he ex partner's home nearby and waiting for her to come back from a night out with friends.
He was banned from having any contact with her by a court order but hid upstairs until she got home before bursting in armed with a knife.
He terrified her guests by brandishing the weapon and holding it to the throat of one of the men. When they tried to call the police he snatched their phones and threw them into bushes outside the house in Chaucer Road.
He pulled out his own phone and took a photo of his terrified victims saying "smile boys" before running away, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Strange then set about creating a false alibi by persuading a friend to lie about him having gone back to her home in Cranbrook.
Mechanic Strange, of College Road, Exeter, admitted affray, breach of a non-molestation order, and attempting to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for a total of three years by Judge Phillip Wassall.
He told him:"This was a serious affray and a long and protracted incident inside a house which you went to in breach of a court order and where you waited for your ex and her friends to come home.
"She must have been terrified because of your history. You made repeated threats with a knife which you held against one man's throat. He was terrified and is now nervous about going out.
"You held the knife in a very dangerous way against somebody's throat and struck him with a blunt part of it.
"You tried to exercise control and power over another woman to provide you with an alibi and then phoned his ex from prison in a serious attempt to pervert the course of justice."
Miss Beth Heaton, prosecuting, said Strange was drinking at the Half Moon pub in Exeter where he saw his ex out celebrating her birthday with friends.
She returned home with one female and two male friends but shortly after they sat down together Strange came down the stairs and burst in and told the men to get out.
He then fetched a knife which he used to threaten them, slapping one in the face with the handle and holding it to his throat.
He tried to stop them calling the police but one managed to dial 999 and he fled after taking a photo and he then called a woman friend to ask her to tell the police he had spent the night with her in Cranbrook.
He was arrested and while on remand at Exeter Prison he rang his ex three times, asking her to withdraw her statements and offering the two men £1,000 each to change their stories.
Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said the background to the case was Strange's jealousy and anger at the break down of his relationship with her ex.
She said:"His actions were seen by at least one of those there as pathetic rather than threatening and there was a level of immaturity, selfishness and complete arrogance."
