A man is behind bars after sending threatening emails to an MP and greeting the police at his home armed with a crossbow.

Ryan Breheny, 48, called the emergency services just after 6.15pm on June 3 and told the police operator he wanted to make a complaint about the NHS.

He then said he had been “offered an AK-47 and was going to execute everyone in the hospital wearing a uniform”.

He continued to make threats, using the word “execute” multiple times, referring to the weapons he planned to use.

Breheny from Wigan also referred to chemicals he could get and how easy it was to make a bomb.

Less than an hour later, he sent two threatening email messages to an MP’s constituency office, which contained threats to kill the MP.

The office manager who opened the emails was very distressed and contacted the police.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, she said: “I was shocked and genuinely believed that this man could’ve carried out the threats that he was making.”

Police went to his home on Old Hall Street, Ince, later that evening and as one of the officers knocked on the door, he could see Breheny inside with a crossbow.

Breheny was told to drop the weapon, but instead began to load it and opened the door with the weapon in his hand.

He was later arrested in his house after he dropped the weapon. Further weapons were seized from his home, including slingshots, rifles, a baton and a machete.

In Breheny’s police interview, he admitted sending the emails to the MP’s office and making the call to the emergency services, although he claimed he had no intention of carrying out his threats.

Breheny has today been jailed at Bolton Crown Court for three years and three months.

Abbie Clarke, senior crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in the North West, said: “Breheny’s threats have caused fear and distress to the staff at the MP’s office.

“Members of Parliament and the emergency services play vital roles in our communities and criminality cannot be allowed to impede or affect that in any way.

“The Crown Prosecution Service works with the police to protect MPs and our emergency services, so they can continue to do their important work.”