Two Polish men who waved kitchen knives outside the home of a homosexual couple while hurling threats and insults at them have been spared jail sentences.

The pair downed vodka with the couple, also Polish, before turning nasty, Bradford Crown Court heard last Thursday.

Mairiusz Klodzinski, 23, and Marek Szofer, 22, pleaded guilty to affray and having an offensive weapon in a public place on January 20.

Prosecutor Dave MacKay said the gay couple, from Keighley, asked the defendants to help move some of their property.

All drank vodka together and Klodzinski and Szofer began making homophobic comments.

Klodzinski, of Holker Street, Keighley, shouted: “I kill gays,” the court heard.

Both he and Szofer, of North Street, Keighley, were told to leave but they returned to break a window and hurl plates at the couple.

One of the men was punched in the face by Szofer and kicked on the knee by Klodzinski.

Mr MacKay said the defendants again left but each returned with a kitchen knife. They waved the weapons in the street calling: “Come out” and “We’re going to cut you up”. The frightened couple locked themselves in their home, the court heard.

The defendants then dropped the knives and fled. They later told police they remembered little except waking up in the police station. Both expressed remorse, Mr MacKay said.

One of their victims suffered a grazed arm, cuts and a sore jaw and £100 damage was done to the couple’s home.

The Honorary Recorder of Bradford, Judge Stephen Gullick, warned the men: “Excessive alcohol and knives do not mix well together.”

Each was sentenced to a community order, with 240 hours’ unpaid work and £150 court costs.