by Geoff Bennett

A drunken Bristol man who made a "blood-curdling" threat with a knife to a passer-by has been spared an immediate jail term.

John Jones brandished a knife and shouted "Oi, mate, I'm going to use this" to Philip Walker in Bridewell Street, Kingswood.

Mr Walker rang 999 and Jones dropped the knife immediately when approached by police. He pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court yesterday to having a bladed article.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC gave him an eight-month jail term suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work and a three-month curfew to stay at home between 9pm and 7am.

"Breach the order or commit another offence and we will be looking at each other again, and you will be going downstairs," he told Jones.

"I'm taking an exceptional course and there'll be no exceptional course again."

Sarah Evans, prosecuting, told the court Mr Walker assumed Jones was going to stab him with the 3.5-inch kitchen knife.

He considered punching Jones in self defence but noticed a police officer nearby.

The officer was on his own and had to wait for others to arrive, but Jones immediately dropped the weapon when police arrived.

When arrested and taken into custody he said he was sorry and did not normally do things like that.

Jones suffered trauma in his early years, which Jonathan Stanniland, defending, said proved to be an emotional burden which blighted his life.

He said Jones had counselling from time to time but still experienced an "emotional void" which could only be filled by using drugs and alcohol to alter his state of mind.

But Mr Stanniland said Jones, who was once a plumber's mate, was working to get his life back on track and was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for help.

Nicholas Momber, himself a recovering alcoholic, told the court people who attended AA were under a lot of emotional and social pressure, and relapses in combating the illness of alcoholism were not uncommon.

"I believe this relapse was a one-off," he said.

The judge told Jones people who brandished knives in public and made threats, even if they are not carried out, go to prison.

He said the threat must have been blood-curdling for his victim.

But the Bristol Crown Court judge recognised Jones had a dark side in his life, which led to addiction, and said the most important thing was treating his issues.