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An unemployed man who threatened to "chop the heads off" two teenage female Army cadets has been spared prison.

Marius Dura, 26, and another man shouted at the girls outside an Army Reserve centre in Gateshead just after 9pm on January 21, leaving them terrified.

Romanian Durawas with another man, who has yet to be traced, in a silver Opel Zafira with Dutch number plates when they spotted the cadets.

Clare Irving, prosecuting at Gateshead Magistrates' Court, said the driver lent across the passenger and said through the open front window: "Are yous in the Army because we will chop your heads off."

The occupants of the car then drove off, the court heard.

The scared teenagers, who were not in uniform, immediately reported the incident when they stopped a passing police vehicle.

Other cadet groups were warned about the threats in the days that followed, CCTV was checked and the search for the two men went international.

Married father-of-two, Dura's family contacted him in Germany, where he lives, and he decided to come back to the UK to face justice.

He was arrested on his arrival at Folkestone, Kent, and was brought to a Newcastle police station where he was charged on Friday. He admitted a single charge of threatening behaviour.

In victim statements, the girls, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, spoke of their trauma.

One said: "I cannot stop crying as I am aware of what is happening in the world and the impact of these threats."

The other said: "This incident has made me very scared."

Shaun McFaul, for Dura, said there was "nothing sinister" in the motivation to make the comment.

"It was a crass, insensitive and not in the least bit funny comment that he made," the solicitor said. "Through me, he would like to apologise to the girls."

Mr McFaul said his client, whose second cousin interpreted for him, had not understood the impact of his threat.

"He never gauged the public feeling that this would arouse in England," he said.

Sentencing, District Judge Helen Cousins said: "It was more than insensitive, it was a terrible thing to say, and particularly to two young women."

She suspended his six-week jail sentence for a year and ordered him to pay £100 each to the girls.

"Compensation is not going to make it up to the girls, it might at least give them some understanding that it is regarded seriously," the judge said.

He was given credit for his guilty plea and for returning to the UK voluntarily.

Around six people from the English Defence League protested outside the court after the hearing, having called him "scum" when the proceedings finished.