A knifeman has been jailed for six months after he was filmed threatening a motorist with a large blade during a street confrontation in Newton Abbot.

Morgan Brien got into an argument in Church Street in March and a resident used their phone to record him carrying a large knife which he raised but did not use.

He walked away from the scene and ran off when police tried to arrest him, having dumped the knife somewhere in between. Officers found he was under the influence of drink or drugs.

He is a care leaver who is living in supported accommodation and who was in the process of being assessed for a possible psychotic disorder when he was arrested and remanded in custody.

He was jailed at Exeter Crown Court under tough new knife laws which impose a mandatory minimum sentence of six months for even the first offence of some types of knife crime.

Brien, aged 19, of Hilton Road, Newton Abbot, admitted threatening a person with a blade and was jailed for six months by Judge David Evans.

The sentence means he will be released immediately because he has been in custody since his arrest in March and inmates normally serve only half of their sentences in custody and the rest on licence.

The judge recommended that Brien be fitted with an alcohol abstinence monitoring tag as a condition of his prison licence after his release.

He told him: 'You were in a heated conversation with a large blade in your hand. This sort of incident can lead to tragic results and create a great deal of fear to an onlooker who does not know the whole story.

'The offence also risks other people who may or may not have worse intentions getting hold a weapon. I not that this ugly weapon was not found.'

The prosecution played a video clip shot on a mobile phone from a window overlooking the scene which showed two men moving around a parked black car and white van and one producing a knife.

Brien was clearly identifiable in a brief sequence shot from a different window as he walked away.

Mr Paul Dentith, defending, said Brien had no recollection of the incident and a psychiatric report questioned whether that was as a result of taking intoxicants or as a result of mental health problems.

He said Brien has already served the mandatory minimum sentence while remanded in custody and would benefit from the advice and support he would receive if he was released on a community order.