A THUG has been jailed following a terrifying attack in which he chased a man with a kitchen knife in Clacton.

Albert Le Surf, 25, was in a “drug haze” after taking a cocktail of cocaine, alcohol and nitrous oxide when he threatened three friends in Rosemary Road on April 19.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Le Surf, of no fixed abode, threatened the young men as he brandished the weapon.

Kathryn Hirst, prosecuting, said: “A group of friends had been standing in the road when somebody they didn’t know approached them.

“He had a gas cannister with him and asked them if they wanted to ‘party’.

“When they declined the person returned and chased one of the group down the street whilst wielding a knife.

“People left the scene very quickly and were clearly quite scared. Somebody could be heard shouting ‘leave it out’.”

Police recognised Le Surf from Ring doorbell footage of the incident and arrested him at the hotel where he was staying on April 28.

Le Surf, who admitted a charge of threatening a person with a blade in a public place at an earlier hearing, has 19 previous convictions for 29 offences, including battery, attempted robbery and harassment.

David Tremain, mitigating, said Le Surf was keen to stress the victims of the attack were men.

“There was not an intention to harm the individuals so much as to frighten them and that was as the result of an argument,” he said.

“The details of what that argument relates to are unclear because there are no statements from the victims and Mr Le Surf was in something of a drug haze at the time.

“It was not a prolonged incident. It was spontaneous.”

Judge Timothy Walker said Le Surf ran towards one of the victims from “not far away”.

“I cannot see that a person being chased by you under the circumstance would have felt anything other than serious alarm,” he said.

He said there was no realistic prospect of rehabilitation and jailed Le Surf for two years, half of which he will serve behind bars before being released on licence.