A shoplifter who assaulted a Lidl shift manager after trying to get back a bag of stolen meat was tasered by police the next day after pulling out an imitation handgun.

Matthew Bryant, age 33, appeared at Truro Crown Court today charged with two counts of assaulting a person occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an imitation firearm in a public place.

The court heard that on December 18 last year, the Lidl manager was working the lunchtime shift at the Lidl in Bude when he heard an alarm going off.

He looked up and saw Bryant heading to the exit with a freezer bag full of meat triggering the alarm.

The shift manager seized the freezer bag off Bryant and took it to the staff area of the store.

Bryant followed him demanding he returned the bag, the store manager locked himself in the staff room and called 999, at which point Bryant left the store.

At around twenty to six, said the prosecution, the shift manager was working back on the shop floor when Bryant came back demanding the return of the bag saying his epi pen was in there.

“The manager told him the bag was now in the possession of the police,” said prosecutor Victoria Bastock. “He needed to contact them to get it back.

“Mr Bryant phoned somebody on his mobile and began calling [the manager] a ‘fat c**t’ and saying he would get him.

“He got up close being nose to nose with Mr H feeling very threatened,” said Miss Bastock. “He [the manager] tried to calm Bryant down but Bryant started to throw punches with two narrowly missing the manager’s face but the third landing on his ribs. Bryant was goading him to get into a fight.”

A retired police officer who was a regular at the store intervened and Bryant left.

In interview the store manager said shoplifting was a huge problem at the store and he felt worried about staff safety without security and did not feel it was dealt with seriously enough.

The next day December 19, Bryant was seen on the streets on an estate in Bude with a woman, by the woman’s daughter and her partner, near their home. The mother and daughter were estranged.

The daughter saw her mum Nicola Hatcher being punched and pulled along the street by her partner Bryant with her body shuddering from the blows without her reacting while he called her vile names.

The police were called and when they arrived, Byant ran away pulling an imitation handgun from his waistband which he threw away.

A police officer tasered him after warning him to stop which he didn’t. The gun was later found to be a black Smith and Western handgun - a gas-powered BB gun with metal pellets loaded with two projectiles. An empty, but working, magazine was found in his pocket.

Videos were found on Bryant’s phone with him making threats with the gun which could have been construed as being towards the store manager such as ‘I’m done p***ing around’ ‘If he wants a war he can have one’ and about his intention to the shoot the person, the court was told.

The court heard that Bryant had 21 convictions for 39 offences including shoplifting and an assault on a staff member in Morrisons last year. He had also had convictions for violence and possession of offensive weapons.

Sentencing Bryant, the judge said she would consider time already served of five months in prison.

For the assault on his partner he was given 18 weeks in prison, for the assault on the Lidl manager, Bryant was given six weeks in prison to run concurrently and for the possession of the firearm he was given nine weeks, a total of 27 weeks in prison, however with time served he was automatically released immediately.

He was also made the subject of a five-year restraining order.