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A drunken knifeman with a blade tucked in his waistband screamed “Taliban” at Asian shop staff.

William Slater already had two previous convictions for carrying knives in public when he was seen acting strangely by passers-by.

Police were called on June 27 after reports of him shouting racial and derogatory terms as Muslims were leaving a mosque in South Bank before police arrested him.

He was heard to be shouting “Taliban” and “mumbling rubbish”.

The “agitated” 44-year-old was then abusive to the arresting police officers before they found a knife stuck in the back gate of his house.

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court that Slater had a knife in the waistband of his trousers when he was drunk and mumbling racial abuse in a local shop.

She said that at the time he was on bail for wounding a man where a knife was also involved for which he was jailed for 19 months on August 16.

Miss Atkinson said that Slater was now liable to a minimum six months jail sentence for a repeat knife offence.

John Nixon, defending, said that Slater plainly had issues with alcohol and drugs and he also had mental problems.

He said: “The knife is seen on CCTV in his waistband but it was not shown or used.

“Plainly alcohol does not do well for him.

“When he was 11 his mother was hacked to death with another woman in Middlesbrough.

“He was deeply affected by that. These issues are being addressed in Holme House (Prison) where he is receiving counselling from MIND.”

The judge told Slater that he had to be jailed for six months for the knife offence.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said: “You had been drinking very heavily and you made offensive remarks and you had a bladed article in the waistband of your trousers.

“The problem is that you have two more recent offences in 2010 and 2016 for having bladed articles. You have three convictions and therefore it has to be six months.”

Slater, of King Road, South Bank , was jailed for nine months consecutive to his current sentence after he pleaded guilty to possession of a blade and racially aggravated public disorder.