A drunken Christmas party reveller who threatened a pub doorman with a kitchen knife was tackled by customers who tackled him to the ground and held him down.

Joshua Sandercock used the knife to stab doors at the Star Inn at Honiton after he was thrown out for arguing with other drinkers on December 23.

He caused £450 damage to a glass panel in one door as he tried to barge his way back into the pub while ranting ‘come on, big boys’.

Sandercock was locked outside the front of the pub and was trying to get back in when a customer sneaked out the back through the beer garden and ambushed him from behind.

He held onto him as door staff and other customers helped to keep him on the ground until police arrived and seized the knife, which had a four inch handle and six inch blade.

Sandercock, aged 27, who was living in Honiton at the time but has since moved to Rifford Road, Exeter, admitted criminal damage and possession of a knife in a public place.

Judge Timothy Rose deferred his sentence until February 5 next year after hearing that Sandercock has turned his life around in the eight months since the incident.

He told him he will go to jail for a year unless he stays out of trouble, remains in work and in a stable home, and saves up money to pay the £450 compensation.

He said: “This was two days before Christmas, you were effectively drunk and saying some rather odd things.

“You were there with a knife. It was a serious and very vicious looking knife.

“You took it out in circumstances which were obviously dangerous.

“There had been an altercation, there were fights breaking out. You were drunk, with a knife, and you have a history of violence.”

Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Sandercock had been arguing with other men earlier in the evening but was allowed back into the pub by door staff after he promised to stay away from them.

He was ejected after a fresh dispute broke out and returned with the knife, attacking doors and breaking a window. He was shouting ‘come on big boys’ and told the bouncer he was ‘after the bigger boys inside’.

A probation report said Sandercock was drinking too much at the time because he was at a low point.

“An injured hand prevented him doing his job in waste disposal and he had problems seeing his two children from a previous relationship.

In the time since, he has started living with a new partner in Exeter, reduced his drinking and drug taking, and found a new job as a fruit and vegetable packer.