A TAVISTOCK teenager who had an iron bar hidden up his sleeve during a disturbance in the town's Bedford Square was abusive to police, a court heard.

Prosecutor Julia Cox told Plymouth Crown Court that around 1.15am on July 4 last year, police were called to the square, where a youth in a white hoody was reported to be waving a knife.

They arrived to find  Alexander Chesters agitated and drunk.

One officer spoke to him to calm him, but when a second told him he would be searched, he became abusive and crossed the road.

They then heard a metal bar, which Chesters had concealed up his sleeve, hit the ground.

Police found a 45cm bar with a handle of wrapped parcel tape.

Chesters was not handcuffed as he had two broken wrists.

He said he had been chased in an earlier incident and had found the bar and picked it up for self-defence.

He had not tried to hit anyone with it and pleaded guilty on the morning of his trial to possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

Jason Beal, for Chesters, of Pixon Lane, Tavistock, said his client was about to start a Thinking Skills programme: 'This is a young man who has concertinaed a lot of offending into a short time.

'But he might be beginning to face up to his responsibilities with the help of the Probation Service.'

Judge Ian Leeming QC sentenced Chesters, 19, to 12 weeks in a young offenders' institution but suspended it for two years.

He also ordered him to do 40 hours of unpaid community work and ordered him to pay £150 towards prosecution costs at £3 a week from his Jobseekers' Allowance.