A legal high user from Highbridge went on a rampage against fellow tenants in a shared house after he accused them of mocking him because he is bald.

James Moore chased one housemate out of the building at knifepoint and cut a second in the neck after forcing his way into his room.

Moore was under the influence of legal highs and suffering an episode of mental illness when he carried out a bizarre series of attacks.

He started by trying to steal a laptop from the security guest at a hostel and then throwing a plant pot at a manager before he went back to the lodgings where he was living and armed himself with a knife.

Moore, aged 25, was spared jail after a judge was told he has moved back to his family in Highbridge, Somerset, and stopped using drink and drugs.

Warehouse worker Moore, of Foster Court, Highbridge, admitted affray, causing actual bodily harm, two common assaults, theft, attempted theft and criminal damage.

He was jailed for eight months, suspended for two years and ordered to receive mental health treatment as part of probation supervision by Recorder Mr Philip Mott, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him:"It is a serious aggravating feature what a knife was used in one of the assaults in which the victim suffered a cut in the neck. Clearly, it could have been so much more serious.

"A psychiatric report diagnosed you as having OCD and depression and a dependency on drugs and alcohol which is now in remission. There is a recommendation for cognitive behavioural therapy.

"You now have a job and stable accommodation with your parents and as a result the risk of further offending is minimised."

Mr Gareth Evans, prosecuting, said all the offences took place on December 1 last year and started at The Foyer, a hostel for teenagers in Torquay.

A security man on the front desk left his post for a short time and when he returned he found Moore had stolen his e-cigarette and was unplugging his laptop.

He challenged Moore, who offered him out for a fight before throwing a ring binder and plant pot at him and leaving.

Moore went back to the shared house where he lived in Lymington Road where to took a knife from the kitchen and tried to get into two different rooms.

The first tenant fled and took refuge next door but Moore followed, still waving the knife and making threats.

He went back to the house where he stabbed the door of a second resident before bursting in a cutting his neck with the knife during a short fracas, causing a small wound.

He told police he was under the influence of legal highs and responded to what he perceived as months of goading by fellow tenants, who called him "a bald headed twat".

Mr David Evans, defending, said Moore's mental health suffered when he was living away from home for the first time but has returned to his parents, where he has stopped drinking and taken drugs and found work in a warehouse.

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