A 49-year-old man who returned home drunk began "shouting the odds" at his family and neighbours.

Hyndburn magistrates heard that Ronald Albert McLachlan challenged his ex-wife and her new partner to come out and fight and then made threats towards neighbours.

McLachlan was swinging an iron bar over his head as he delivered his one-man tirade in the back garden of the house he shared with his ex-wife and her partner.

McLachlan, of Dover Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to affray. He was committed on bail to Preston Crown Court for sentence after the magistrates heard he had previous convictions for affray. Philippa White, prosecuting, said a neighbour in Westbury Gardens was woken by the sound of McLachlan hammering on the door and shouting "come on I'll take you all on".

The neighbour then heard shouting and banging from inside the house before McLachlan emerged in the back garden brandishing the iron bar.

He called one neighbour a "fat bitch" and said he would kill another neighbour and his two dogs.

Gareth Price, defending, said: "He initially found himself locked out and when he went into the back garden he engaged in a one person rant," said Mr Price.

"There was nobody outside with him although he accepts the comments he made would have been distressing for the neighbour who over-heard them."