A FURIOUS teenager held a social worker hostage at knifepoint after learning his younger sister had been taken into care, a court heard.

Bolton Youth Court heard how the 17-year-old youth calmly locked the front door while a social worker and police officer were inside his Breightmet home and produced a knife.

The female social worker, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had gone to the house with DC Wayne Hagan on the morning of June 9, to inform the boy’s mother that her daughter had been taken into care.

Social services had obtained a court order to protect the girl from a forced marriage amid fears that her family were trying to marry her to a 35-year-old cousin.

But Thomas Sherrington, prosecuting, told how the mother became upset as she was informed of the decision, began hitting herself and pulling her clothing.

Giving evidence, the social worker said that before his mother became distressed the teenager went into the kitchen.

“I heard a drawer opening and rustling in a drawer, but I didn’t think anything about it,” said the social worker, in her 20s, who added that the teenager then casually walked to the front door.

She decided to leave, but when she went to the door it was locked and, walking back into the living room she heard shouting.

The teenager had pulled out a large kitchen knife and was holding it to his own neck.

“I panicked and stood still for a moment and he came towards DC Hagan and myself.

“He was shouting that he wanted his sister here now and pointed the knife towards us and walked towards us,” said the social worker.

She wept in the witness box as she said: “I was terrified. I thought that he was going to stab me and I thought about my children.

“I just wanted to get away so I ran upstairs.”

DC Hagan revealed how he held his hands up and backed away.

“His eyes were as big as saucers. He seemed to go a grey colour. To my mind he looked demonic,” he said.

“I was frightened by what I saw.”

He added that he and a neighbour, who was also in the house, managed to escape out of the back door.

“I really thought I could get seriously hurt or die,” said the officer.

“It hit me at that point that the social worker was still in the house.”

The woman told how the teenager followed her up the stairs and, to try and pacify him, she pretended to phone his sister whilst really dialling 999.

She added that she even considered jumping out of a bedroom window to escape but feared hurting herself.

“He was pointing the knife at me and then back at his own neck," she said

“I remember positioning my body so that if he stabbed me it wouldn’t cause too much damage."

The court heard that police who arrived on scene got the teenager’s mother to unlock the back door, the social worker fled and the officers managed to persuade the boy to drop the knife.

The social worker said the incident has had a serious effect on her.

“I am scared to go anywhere on my own. In work I am scared to go on visits,” she said.

The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to affray but denied false imprisonment.

Giving evidence, he denied having pointed the knife at anyone, claiming he only threatened to harm himself.

He added that he had been upset by the “cold, calm and collected” attitude of the social worker and police officer when they arrived at the house and did not like seeing his mother distressed.

“At that particular moment in time I thought ‘I have to do something, I have to sort this problem out,’” he said.

When interviewed by police he said he had locked the door to stop people leaving the house, but in court he claimed that he locked the door to prevent anyone grabbing him from behind.

The trial continues.