A thug brandished a metal pole in the middle of an electronics store and started smashing up TVs, a court heard.

Tomass Averats carried out his frenzied attack at the Currys PC World in Chatham as terrified shoppers looked on.

The 32-year-old, of no fixed address, then assaulted two police officers in the cells following his arrest on April 2 last year.

He entered the shop on the Horsted Retail Park in Maidstone Road at about 2.45pm that day and as he walked through the aisles with televisions, uncovered the weapon and started destroying two sets in front of customers.

A member of staff managed to restrain him until police arrived.

When officers arrested him on suspicion of causing criminal damage, they found a kitchen knife in his pocket and a rock with rope tied around it in his bag.

He was taken into custody but when two officers checked on him in his cell, he attacked them.

Averats admitted seven charges – two counts of assaulting an emergency worker, two counts of possessing an offensive weapon, possessing a knife in a public place and two counts of criminal damage.

He was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday for three years which also included a 20-month sentence for unrelated offences carried out in Bristol.

Sgt Glen Rickersey, from the Medway Local Policing Team, said: "Averats’ violent behaviour would have been terrifying for shoppers and shop staff.

"He also acted with contempt and violence towards those officers who were checking on his welfare when he was in custody.

"Averats clearly had the intention to commit similar acts from the weapons we discovered in his possession and this result means we have been able to prevent that from happening."

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Medway