A TEENAGER who threatened residents of a Southampton tower block with a BB gun and a knife, prompting an armed police response, has been jailed.

Liam Fearnley, 19, of Gilpin Close, Southampton, was also caught dealing class A drugs when he sold wraps of crack cocaine and heroin to an undercover police officer.

Fearnley, who will spend 30 months behind bars, said he had taken acid five hours before visiting his ex-girlfriend in her flat at Albion Towers on May 17, 2018.

Southampton Crown Court heard that he went to see her in her flat on the seventh floor of the building to take some belongings but became violent shortly after, threatening to stab people.

Rose Burns, prosecuting, said: “He was threatening to shoot her. She pushed him back away and she run upstairs.

"He pulled a knife on her throat. He continued to threaten her. She managed to get her phone.”

The court heard that while his ex-girlfriend ran away, Fearnley threatened to stab Richard Cokayne, who was working in the building as a fire inspector.

Mr Cokayne got behind a door and phoned the police before Fearnley went back into his ex-girlfriend’s flat.

Fearnley barricaded himself into the flat and shouted expletives before hanging half his body out of the window and threatening to jump.

The building was cordoned off and residents were evacuated.

After three hours police managed to seize the knife and Fearnley was arrested.

The court heard that in November 2017 Fearnley sold wraps of crack cocaine and heroin to an undercover police officer in Thornhill.

Richard Onslow, mitigating, described Fearnley as a young man, with no real employment, nowhere settled to live, no money coming in and no prospects.

He added: “He found the end of the relationship particularly difficult to accept and returned to drugs.

“The defendant is regretful for what he did and has been learning a lesson.”

In sentencing, recorder Hannah Willcocks, said the lack of a positive role model had a detrimental effect on Fearnley after his father died in 2006.

Fearnley, who pleaded guilty to drug dealing, affray and assault, was also banned from visiting Albion Towers for the next five years.