A STREET drinker pleaded guilty to threatening to rip apart the owner of a Worcester shop.

Patrick Niblett, aged 71, went to Stitch and Sew in Worcester Hop Market on Friday, August 3, to see the owner who he has known for about a decade.

But he refused to leave and became aggressive when he thought she had called the police on him.

Kerry Lovegrove, prosecuting, said: “The proprietor was working in Stitch and Sew.

“He is known to her as he often passes her shop and she sometimes gives him a cup of tea or cigarette to make him leave.

“She says he arrived and was already drunk and he kept going in and out the shop.”

The court was told after Niblett was asked to leave he failed to leave the area and came back to the shop.

“He went back to the shop and assumed it was her who had called the police,” said Miss Lovegrove. “He said I know it was you and told her he would rip her apart. “He was shouting and making a ripping motion with his hand.

“She said the incident has really upset her and she states she doesn’t want him near her again.”

Paul Stanley, defending, said Niblett, who is now living in Allison House in Birmingham, was in Worcester to lay some flowers on the grave of murder victim Jacqueline Harrison.

He said: “He accepts he was at this premises. He has known her and they have been friends for 10 years.

“He went back to the shop because he had left his belongings there.

“The officers were present and as a result he has lost his temper. “He never meant to upset this lady and he apologises if he has.”

Magistrates fined Niblett £85 but deemed the three days spent in custody was time spent.