A man who showered a young woman with glass as he aggressively slammed a machete into a car window has been jailed for 14 months.

Tyrone Triggs, 30, formerly of Talbot Road, Trowbridge, but now living at Kingston Road, Bradford on Avon, lashed out after hearing his niece was involved in a disagreement over a borrowed jacket.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court on Monday there was some property which needed to be returned so two girls, driven by one of their boyfriends, went to another girl’s house.

When they arrived in Lambrok Road on April 26 Triggs came running out with the machete.

He smashed a window on the Ford Fiesta showering a girl with shattered glass. The terrified motorist drove away and the police arrested the defendant.

Miss Hingston said: “There didn’t seem to be evidence these people had threatened his niece.”

Triggs admitted affray, criminal damage and having a bladed article.

Andrew Eddy, defending, said “Mr Triggs understands his behaviour was unacceptable.”

He said he took the weapon with him not to threaten the people who had been involved in a disagreement with his niece, but to protect himself.

Jailing him, Judge Douglas Field said: “The circumstances are so serious I can’t pass a sentence which doesn’t involve imprisonment.”