AN ALCOHOLIC who claimed he had a gun and was going to kill the woman he loved after she rejected his advances has been jailed for 12 months.Stephen Whitehead, 53, told an Anglia Care Trust worker that he planned to kill a woman called Dee and that he had a gun in his bag, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

AN ALCOHOLIC who claimed he had a gun and was going to kill the woman he loved after she rejected his advances has been jailed for 12 months.

Stephen Whitehead, 53, told an Anglia Care Trust worker that he planned to kill a woman called Dee and that he had a gun in his bag, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

He asked care worker Roberta Owen if she would visit him in prison and said: “I'm going to kill Dee because I love her and she doesn't love me.”

Godfried Duah, prosecuting, said “Dee” had been a cleaner at the local Salvation Army hostel and had got to know Whitehead while he was a resident there.

“During the course of that he became friendly with her and there had been some friendship between them,” said Mr Duah.

He said Whitehead had also told Dee that he had bought a gun for £40 and she had told him to take it back.

Police had searched Whitehead's home address and no gun had ever been found.

Whitehead, who was living in Norwich Road, Ipswich, admitted making a threat to kill.

The court heard that he had 32 previous convictions for 70 offences, including an offence of arson.

Sentencing Whitehead, Judge Neil McKittrick said he had made the threat to kill after taking a liking to Dee and she had “rebutted his advances”.

Carl Marchant, for Whitehead, said his client was a chronic alcoholic and had never been in possession of the gun he claimed to have had.

He said the woman he had threatened to kill had not taken the threat seriously and had declined an offer of police protection.