A DAD has been jailed after threatening a witness in a police investigation.

David Atherton was locked up at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting a charge of witness intimidation.

The court heard from prosecutor Christopher Hopkins how the 59-year-old threatened to ‘wipe out’ a shop worker.

This came after he made an official complaint about the defendant’s son to the police.

The defendant attended the store in Bewsey on September 24 last year and confronted the witness over the report.

Atherton threatened to ‘sort him out’ and ‘wipe him out’.

He later admitted that his actions were threatening and intimidating, and that he acted with an intention to thereby obstruct, pervert or interfere with justice.

Jim Smith, defending, told the court that his client was sorry for his behaviour and had been drinking alcohol beforehand that day.

Atherton, of Longshaw Street in Bewsey, was sentenced by judge Garrett Byrne to 16 months immediate imprisonment.