A LOVESICK Brierley Hill teenager who threatened two young men with a gun has been allowed to keep his freedom.

Grant Pearson, of High Street, was trying to track down the new man in his ex-girlfriend’s life, when he threatened the men.

Blondelle Thompson, defending, said Pearson had been in his first real relationship, he was totally committed to his partner and there were “deep feelings”.

But after it broke down he “could not cope with it” and he now realised the fear he had placed the two men in when he produced the imitation firearm.

“He is thoroughly ashamed of himself,” Miss Thompson told Wolverhampton Crown Court. “He now knows his former girlfriend is offering him friendship and nothing else.”

Judge Martin Walsh told 19-year-old Pearson: “In a heightened sense of emotion you threatened these two men with an imitation firearm.

“They did not know it was not a real gun,” he added. "This was grotesquely immature behaviour on your part.”

But he ruled that after reading testimonials placed before the court on behalf of the teenager he was just able to take an "exceptional" course and not send him straight into custody.

Pearson admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and he was given 16 months in a Young Offenders Institution suspended for two years.

Miss Thompson told the court that Pearson had been in possession of a toy gun but stressed that the two victims “did not know whether it was real or otherwise”.

Edward Soulsby, prosecuting, said Pearson – who was further ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work in the community – had been in the relationship for over a year and they broke up just two weeks before the incident.

He said he saw her in a car with a young man and sent her a text message that read: “At least I now know what the new man in your life looks like.”

She sent him a message back telling him she was with friends on the car park of the Co-op store in Kingswinford so they could talk and try and resolve matters.

Pearson arrived and he leant into the car of the first victim and asked him, “Who is it?” When the man said he did not know, Pearson produced the handgun and said: “You have got 24 hours to find out or I am coming to find you.”

The victim was extremely shocked, said Mr Soulsby, who explained how Pearson then went to a second car where his ex-partner was with another young man with whom she was not romantically involved.

The teenager then pointed the gun at the other man and said: “It had better not be you neither”, leaving his victim “frozen in shock”.

Police firearms officers were quickly on the scene and they found Pearson in the area but there was no trace of the imitation gun.