A schizophrenic who chained up his wife and left his young son in a gas-filled flat was detained in a mental hospital.

David Hounslow also assembled an arsenal of weapons during the terrifying ordeal which led to an eight-hour armed seige by police.

He was finally captured when he left his flat and tried to commit suicide by swallowing 250 pills stashed in his car.

Hounslow, 39, of Fox Close, Chipping Norton, pleaded guilty to charges of making a threat to kill and falsely imprisoning his wife when he appeared at Oxford Crown Court in June. Anthony McGeorge, prosecuting, told the court yesterday Hounslow had separated from his wife, Elizabeth, in March last year and agreed to share custody of their four-year-old son, Vaughan.

On April 9 the three were driving out for the day when Elizabeth noticed Hounslow's eyes were 'bulging' and he was talking non-stop.

They went to the Chipping Norton flat where a row broke out over Mrs Hounslow's new boyfriend. David Hounslow then threatened to kill his former wife, before producing a chain and padlocking her to the door of the airing cup- board. A neighbour who heard the disturbance called the police who surrounded the flat with an armed response unit, Mr McGeorge said. Meanwhile, Hounslow had assembled an air pistol, knives and screwdrivers and was threatening to shoot himself.

He finally emerged from the flat at about 3.30am and went to his Volvo estate parked in the drive where he swallowed a bottle of pills. He was described by one officer as foaming at the mouth. When police entered the flat they found the child asleep in the bedroom and a smell of gas coming from the kitchen.

Recorder Guy Hungerford ordered Hounslow to undergo treatment at the Elms Clinic, based at the Littlemore Hospital, Oxford.

Story date: Saturday 16 October

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