THE owner of a Workington takeaway outlet was attacked, racially abused and threatened with a large knife by a man who then hurled crockery at police officers from his first-floor flat.

But a defence barrister representing Army veteran Melvyn Stephenson, 41, said his behaviour was the result post-traumatic stress.

At Carlisle Crown Court, the defendant, of Wilson Street, Workington, was being sentenced after he pleaded guilty to an affray and a racially aggravated common assault on the business owner.

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson set out the facts.

The victim was outside his Wilson Street business - called Delicious - at 8.30pm on December 19, talking to his delivery drivers, when Stephenson approached.

He had his chest "puffed out" and he looked as though he was breathing hard. Moments after the shop owner asked him if he was okay, the defendant threw a punch towards the man, who was able to block it with his arm.

Stephenson then began yelling racist abuse at the takeaway owner.

"Members of the public were also present and began challenging him about his racist behaviour," said Mr Rogerson.

The defendant then walked away and went to his first floor flat along the street but soon after he appeared at his window, holding a large kitchen knife as he shouted to his victim: "I'm going to come and stab you."

He also said he wanted to go back to prison. When police arrived on the scene, the officers had to temporarily take shelter because Stephenson was throwing crockery, metal plates and other items at them, said Mr Rogerson.

"He was clearly agitated and very drunk," said Mr Rogerson.

The defendant was arrested after police forced entry to his flat and used a taser device to bring him under control. He told officers he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his military service.

Judith McCullough, defending, expanded on that point for the court.

She said: "He was in the Army for six years and saw active service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"His experiences there have had an enduring effect on his mental health - to the extent that he was diagnosed in 2014 with PTSD.

"Those mental health problems have been largely untreated and they have resulted in a pattern of offending and imprisonment. In the Army he was an advanced infantryman and he saw friends killed and maimed and he would be on patrol where they fell."

Those traumatic experiences had left Stephenson experiencing "hyper-vigilance" "fear" and "distress."

At the start of lockdown, he broke his ankle and he was unable to exercise or access his usual support network. He had used alcohol as a form of self-medication. "He fell into alcohol misuse," said the barrister.

"At the time of this offence, he was emotionally overwhelmed and he accepts that he lashed out in a wholly unacceptable manner... He knows that he did the wrong thing."

Judge Nicholas Barker accepted that Stephenson had mental health difficulties but said: "When your mental health begins to be challenging, you resort to drinking alcohol and it's with the taking of alcohol that your behaviour moves from being manageable to being unmanageable; to being violent, irrational and aggressive."

Noting that Stephenson had in the past successfully abstained from alcohol for weeks or months at a time, the judge said rehabilitation centred around his alcohol use would not have the desired effect.

"It's not the alcohol; it's the consequences of your behaviour when you drink alcohol that's the problem," said the judge. The ably-advanced mitigation presented by Miss McCullough had been before the court during previous cases, added the judge.

Judge Barker jailed Stephenson for six months.