A “PATHOLOGICALLY jealous” carpenter who faced life behind bars for cutting the brakes of a car used by his pregnant ex-partner has walked free from court.

Chris Gunn, 26, subjected Rachel Hodgeson to a ten-month campaign of “stalking and harassment” after she plucked up the courage to break up with him.

The terrifying ordeal – which included threats to kill her, her new partner and their unborn child – culminated in cutting the brakes of her mother’s car, which Ms Hodgeson regularly drove.

Gunn admitted damaging property being reckless as to whether life is endangered – a crime that can carry a life sentence.

He also pleaded guilty to putting a person in fear of violence by harassment.

Prosecutor John McNally said Gunn and Ms Hodgeson had a child together and were in a relationship for several years, during which Gunn became “aggressive and controlling”.

He said: “She had tried to leave him unsuccessfully a number of times. She stayed partly because she feared what he might do if she left.”

After Ms Hodgeson left Gunn in 2017, his behaviour became “a million times worse” and escalated further when she met a new partner and became pregnant.

Gunn drove from his home in Eastbourne to Ms Hodgeson’s home in Rye on October 1, 2018, where he cut the car’s brake cable “clean through”.

The prosecutor said: “Rachel had told him that she and her partner would be using her mother’s car that week.

“He said he would cut the baby out of her and he would have the last laugh.”

Though he made some attempts to contact Ms Hodgeson to warn her of his actions, he could not reach her and did not try again.

It was not until the next day that Gunn called the police and explained what he had done.

Rachel’s mother tried to drive the car after the brake line was cut, but a warning light came on and the car would not start.

Defending, Hannah Hurley said: “Although it began to dawn on him the great stupidity of what he had done, the dangerousness of what he had done to that car really did not hit him before this began to unravel.”

Miss Hurley said Gunn had shown remorse and said his depression and the steroids he had been taking affected his behaviour.

Recorder Paul Bowen said Gunn’s dangerous actions could have landed him behind bars for the rest of his life.

He described Gunn as “pathologically jealous” and said he carried out a “campaign of stalking and harassment”.

But he said Gunn did not intend for them to be seriously injured or killed and was simply “reckless”. Mr Bowen reduced Gunn’s sentence to two years, suspended.