Cut-throat sign made to witness

A man who made a cut-throat gesture to a teenage girl witness in court was jailed for four months yesterday.

As Barry Greenwood was escorted to the cells, his wife, Susan, a town councillor, collapsed in court and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Minutes earlier, their son Mark Greenwood, 25, a former Royal Marine from Rotherham, had been found guilty by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court of arson at his ex-girlfriend's home and a separate charge of affray.

Judge David Bentley QC told Barry Greenwood before he left the court: "The alleged offence was in the form of passing a finger across the throat ... The complainant has been left considerably upset and has not returned to court because she is too distressed. This is contempt in the face of the court."