A dad-of-one made the lives of his former partner's family a misery by bombarding them with obscene and threatening phone calls.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Geoffrey Bromilow had been in a long-standing relationship with the mum of his child, but this had broken down in the months leading up to the offence.
This culminated with Bromilow being charged with assaulting his former partner, Nichola Marlett, which prompted a stream of increasingly abusive and menacing phone calls to her family in St Helens to try and get the charge dropped.
These were directed at his ex-partner's dad, mum, and sister.
At one point Bromilow, 37, threatened he would get a gang in Manchester to "kidnap, rape and torture" the dad, Philip Marlett. He also said he would be "murdered by a f------ crew".
Vile sexualised threats were also made towards Mr Marlett's wife Betty, and daughter Lisa.
In their victim impact statements, members of the family said the calls became so relentless that they "jumped" whenever the phone rang, and were afraid to go out in case they ran into Bromilow.
Mrs Marlett also said she suffered from chest pains and panic attacks as a result of the stalking campaign, and that she was afraid Bromilow would turn up at the house.
Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, said: "Over a period of around six weeks, in excess of 100 phone calls were made to the family's landline.
"What made matters worse was that the Marletts were also custodians of three of their grandchildren, who also lived in the house and were understandably upset by what was going on.
"Some of the threats involved burning the house down.
"Their daughter Lisa, who was 26 at the time, said she felt physically sick by the sexualised threats made towards her."
Defending, Ben Morris said Bromilow suffered from mental health problems and he had made the calls while intoxicated.
"He is not the great threat to society," Mr Morris added.
Bromilow, of Woodhouse Lane, Wigan, pleaded guilty to one offence of stalking and putting Philip Marlett in fear of violence, after changing his plea the day before a trial was due to start.
Judge David Swinnerton told Bromilow: "You made the family's lives a nightmare for the period you were constantly ringing.
"Their personal impact statements make clear they were living in a constant state of fear and anxiety. They struggled to sleep and were in a permanent state of stress."
He jailed Bromilow for 32 months, of which he must serve half in custody.
The judge also imposed a six-year restraining order to prevent Bromilow contacting Philip, Betty, and Lisa Marlett.
