CAREER criminal, fearing he was being recalled to prison after breaching the conditions of his licence, threatened to shoot police, jurors heard.

Drunken Wayne Cornlouer, 20, said he didn’t care if he was locked up for the rest of his life.

Southampton Crown Court was told that Cornlouer had been jailed for three and a half years in 2011 for possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and had only spent about a fortnight at a Southampton bail hostel on his release before walking out.

The court heard that an assistant at the Landguard Road unit gave police Cornlouer’s mobile phone number.

He was walking in the city centre late at night with a teenage girl when police phoned him.

Jurors then heard a conversation with PC Ian Pitcher advising him to return to the hostel.

But Cornlouer told him: “I’ve got a gun. I don’t care. The first copper that even approaches me is getting shot clean in the head. I don’t care about doing time.”

Asked what type of weapon he had, he said he had a pistol but refused to say where he had obtained it.

“That’s for me to know, innit? Listen mate, if you’re thinking I’m gassing, yeah like get one of your colleagues to come tomeand I’ll swear to God I’ll blow his head off.”

Asked where he was, Cornlouer replied: “I’m not going to say where I am. It’s obviously your job to find that out. I’ve breached my bail conditions, you get one of your officers to come and find me, and I’ll blow his head off.”

Told he would go to prison for the rest of his life, Cornlouer said: “That’s alright, I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Cornlouer said if he carried out his threat, he wouldn’t go back to jail – instead he would jump off a bridge.

The court was told that Cornlouer, believing the call was being traced, again said he would “let a few rounds off”.

He was arrested shortly afterwards by six police officers with a police dog in the city centre.

Cornlouer, of no fixed abode, admitted threats to kill and was further remanded for probation, psychiatric and psychological reports.

He was acquitted of possessing an imitation firearm to cause fear of violence after jurors heard testimony from a 17- year-old girl who was with him at the time.

Judge Derwin Hope said he was concerned about Cornflouer’s background as he had 36 previous offences and he needed to consider the questionwhether he was a danger in the community.

Defence barrister David Reid told jurors Cornlouer had not been armed.