A SON who told his mother, “I want you dead”, has been jailed for breaching a restraining order preventing him from contacting her.

Gavin Edwards, 37, was arrested after turning up at her Blackwood home earlier this month in defiance of a court order.

William Bebb, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was knocking at her front door at around 6.15am on December 2.

“She let him in because she was afraid he might smash her windows as he had done on a previous occasion and he sat down in the extension area.”

He used the toilet and then told her, “I want you dead”, before she said to Edwards he was no longer welcome and she called the police.

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Mr Bebb told Cardiff Crown Court: “The defendant was smoking a cigarette at the front door when they arrived.

“He said to the officers, ‘Thank **** for that. Let’s go boys’.

“The victim said she felt scared that he might hurt her as he has done to her husband.”

Edwards, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order.

It was his fourth breach of the order which was imposed in 2014.

His last breach was in October and had only just been released from jail for that offence.

Edwards had 25 previous convictions for 46 offences.

Jenny Yeo, mitigating, said: “This is a very sad case your honour.

“The defendant was released from prison on November 25 and was living in the woods.

“He was cold, tired and hungry.”

The court was told how social services have been in contact with Edwards over the possibility of proving him with bed and breakfast accommodation.

Mrs Yeo said her client was sorry for this latest breach.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins told Edwards: “This is a very sad situation.”

He added: “There was some distress caused to your mother. You told her you wanted her dead.”

The defendant was jailed for 24 weeks.

Judge Jenkins urged Edwards to break his “horrible cycle of reoffending” and get help from social services so he would no longer be homeless.