An abusive menace who had to be pinned to a chair by shoppers in a busy supermarket after launching a drunken tirade of abuse and threats has been spared jail.

Twenty-five-year-old John Stevens was serving three conditional discharges at the time of the incident last month at Morrisons, in Sutton Road, Maidstone.

While being restrained he called one officer a paedophile and threatened to rape him and cut his throat.

The alcoholic father of one had been convicted in Newcastle weeks earlier for criminal damage and harassment and is serving conditional discharges for both offences as well as an earlier charge.

Less than two weeks after the supermarket incident Stevens, of Mote Road, was charged with being drunk and disorderly after swearing at strangers and attempting to bite a police officer — an offence he has been fined for.

Stevens had previously pleaded guilty to abusive behaviour.

However, magistrates overlooked his past and imposed a year-long community order, to include a 30-day rehabilitation course and six months of alcohol treatment.