MARK Snuggs ran out of his flat wielding a Samurai sword after neighbours complained about his loud music, a court heard.

Snuggs, 27, leaned out of his window in Cheltenham town centre and shouted "I'll come down and take your heads off" at people who had gathered below.

Gloucester Crown Court heard Snuggs, then of Wellington Street, had admitted having an offensive weapon and breaching the peace.

Crown Prosecutor Lisa Hennessy said Emma Ogden, who lived in the flat below, went up to complain about "unbearable" loud music Snuggs was playing at 11pm.

The volume was turned down for a while, but by 12.30am it was louder than ever and other neighbours of Snuggs went into the street to shout complaints, according to Ms Hennessy.

She said: "Miss Ogden and her friend Paul Allen watched from her flat and saw about five men in the street downstairs. He went into the street with a Samurai sword and began fighting with people in the street.

"The sword was later thrown into a corridor outside Miss Ogden's flat. She fetched it and put it in her flat. Snuggs was arrested when the police arrived. Miss Ogden handed them the sword.

"Snuggs said he couldn't remember much because of the amount of alcohol and cannabis he had consumed that evening. He said he kept the sword for protection."

Snuggs had a number of previous convictions going back to 1998, including one for battery, the court was told.

Joe Maloney, defending, said Snuggs was remorseful and had pleaded guilty immediately.

He has now moved from Wellington Street and lives in a one-bedroom flat where he is getting a lot of help from his mother, he said.

He told the court: "During this incident he was disarmed without anyone being injured.

"There is no evidence he attempted to strike anyone with the weapon.

"It is accepted, of course, that this was a potentially very serious incident."

Judge Michael Harington told Snuggs the offence was serious enough for an immediate jail term.

However, the judge said he had decided to impose a two-year community order with supervision, an alcohol programme and an aggression therapy programme.

He also sentenced Snuggs to a four month 7pm to 7am electronically-tagged home curfew.

Judge Harington said: "Those who experienced your behaviour that night must have found it extremely frightening. The sword could have caused appalling damage to somebody – or even more than one person. This sort of behaviour has got to stop." Snuggs had been committed to Crown Court for sentence after he pleaded guilty at the magistrates' court to the weapon and breaching peace charges.