A man was suffering a mental breakdown after he had a hatchet in the street following an altercation with his neighbour.
Anthony Peel was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon in a public place and affray.
Events began at around 8pm on October 6 when 36-year-old Peel earlier visited the neighbour and said he wanted a fight.
The man found it odd as he considered them to be friends. They had a discussion and Peel returned home.
Peel then had some sort of argument and disagreement with his partner after he returned home smelling of alcohol.
She had challenged him about his alcohol intake because he has borderline personality disorder and should not be drinking because of his medication.
Peel picked up a bread knife for a few seconds and threw it into the kitchen bin.
The same neighbour arrived and there was an altercation.
The neighbour restrained him. Peel began to reach towards a steel utensil pot filled with knives, leading the neighbour to believe Peel would grab hold of a knife and attack him with it.
Peel had swung out at him with his fists and, in order to stop him, the neighbour had struck him to his face and connected with his right cheek.
The defendant put his arms around the man's throat and squeezed lightly.
The victim struck Peel again to get him off him, then joined Peel's girlfriend and left.
Peel followed holding "something metal", said Rebecca Coleman, prosecuting at Nottingham Crown Court.
Police arrived and retrieved the hatchet from the ground.
Nicola Hunter, mitigating, said he was clearly suffering from a mental breakdown at the time.
"This is not a man who intentionally wanted to frighten anybody or went out drinking around pubs and wanted to get in a fight. This was a desperate man in a desperate situation".
Recorder Stuart Sprawson said the neighbour had acted in total self-defence for fear of "what you were going to do to him".
He ordered Peel, of Stanley Road, Forest Fields, to complete 20 hours of a rehabilitation requirement, and gave him six months in prison concurrently on each charge, suspended for 18 months.
He suspended the sentence after hearing about Peel's ongoing mental health.
On this occasion, the judge said, he was "suffering from some sort of episode"; that it had been his first experience of imprisonment in the last four weeks in custody on remand, and he is progressing well on his medication.
