A deaf shopkeeper was threatened with a broken bottle after telling a customer they did not stock a certain brand of alcohol.

Terrified Elvira Parmar feared she would be attacked when 29-year-old Samuel Sharp marched into the newsagents brandishing the weapon.

Sharp, of Gordon Road, Canterbury, had earlier been in the shop asking for a particular alcohol label.

Mrs Parmar, who reads lips, told Sharp they did not stock the booze, but he came back five minutes later with a bank card.

Told the shop did not accept card payments, he left again, but returned a third time with the smashed bottle, demanding money from the shopkeeper.

Prosecutor Frances Lawson said: “Mrs Parmar became very alarmed and frightened because of the manner in which he was behaving and the presence of the smashed glass bottle in his hand.

“There were also three teenagers in the newsagents who were frightened by what was taking place.”

Sharp left Parmar’s Newsagent in Tonbridge Road and was later arrested.

James Burke, defending, said Sharp had been an inpatient at nearby Priority House in Maidstone after a suicide attempt shortly before the offence.

He had been treated for six years for paranoid schizophrenia and an emotional personality disorder.

Sharp admitted possessing an offensive weapon and was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC told him: “You unlawfully threatened Mrs Parmar in such a way that there was an immediate risk of serious harm to her.

“During a relapse you went to the shop, which was quite near the hospital. Mrs Parmar had a terrifying experience with lasting effect.

“There is a clear link to a long-standing diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and an emotionally unstable personality disorder.

“You have accepted treatment for many years and are compliant and insightful.

“The appropriate sentence is custody because the threshold is clearly passed.

“However, I am going to suspend the sentence in the circumstances.”

The judge made a five-year restraining order banning Sharp from contacting Mrs Parmar or going to her shop.