A MAN who threatened to decapitate a neighbour and take her head to the police station in a bag has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Rawdon Eley, who has a schizoid personality disorder, said his life had been building up to the violent act.

The 51-year-old was in a mental health unit after smashing on her door with a hammer and telling police he was going to 'execute her' when he made the threat.

But after a couple of months of treatment Eley, who was sentenced to a hospital order in 2009 after torching his house, told staff that he was not benefitting from their care.

And he said he was going to discharge himself, get blind drunk, buy an axe and hack her head off before taking it to Gablecross police station in a bag.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the first incident took place on Tuesday June 30 last year when he set about the neighbour's door.

Shortly before midnight he said the woman phoned her boyfriend because she heard knocking and shouting at the front door of her Toothill home.

He told her to call the police and went to the house, where he saw him repeatedly smashing at the front door with what appeared to be a hammer.

Mr Meeke said "Shortly after Mr Eley telephoned police on the 999 system and announced ' I am going to execute my neighbour'.

When they asked why, he said 'She is psychologically trying to kill destroy me,' and 'I am in a very bad place at the moment, I am going to do something very violent'.

Eley told officers that she was making a noise by getting up and waking around in the morning.

He said 'I am going to get up and half past six in the morning, when she plods about. I am going to douse her in acetone and set her on fire'.

Mr Meeke said when they searched his house they found a knife by the front door and a five litre can of acetone which he had ordered online.

After he was arrested and interviewed he was taken to the Sandalwood Court mental health unit for treatment and assessment.

In the early hours of Thursday September 10 he was up and about at the hospital and went outside for a cigarette.

"He was clearly in a slightly agitated state. He said 'I am sick of this place, I don't think I have moved forward at all. She is going to get everything she deserves when I get out. I have had a lot of time to think about it. I have made a plan. Tomorrow I am going to discharge myself, get blind drunk, buy and axe.

"'I'll smash the front door, it is all glass, I know the weak point, I will get my neighbour in a room and hack her to pieces'.

"He went on to say he would take her head in a bag to Gablecross police station. He went on to say 'My whole life has been building up to this one violent act. I have known it since a child: I have no control over it'."

Eley, of Affleck Close, Toothill, was convicted of threats to kill by magistrates after a trial, and admitted threatening behaviour and sending an offensive communication.

Clare Fear, defending, said her client suffers from a personality disorder with anxious, avoidance and schizoid features which could not be treated.

She said his problems had been exacerbated by drink but insisted he never meant to carry out what he said to mental health nurses.

Since his arrest she said he had shown remorse and had a number of other health issues.

Jailing him Judge Peter Blair QC said "You, I have been told, have during the course of your assessment been effectively without your liberty for eight months and 17 days and that will count towards the sentence I have to pass on you today.

"The consequences of the sentence mean you are probably going to be released in six-and-a-half months."

As well as the jail term he imposed a restraining order banning him from contacting the woman or going to Affleck Close.