A husband chased a young worshipper with a meat cleaver in a self-confessed 'moment of madness'.

Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how Christopher Vass, of Oakdale Road, Leytonstone, confronted the group of men who were loitering outside his home after they had been to a nearby mosque on April 18 this year.

Vass, annoyed at the men regularly gathering outside his home, approached them and said "watch what I’m going to do" before he disappeared into his house and returned with a metal vacuum cleaner pole and meat cleaver.

After Vass returned with the weapons, some of the men backed away but one man continued to argue, resulting in a chase around a parked car.

On Wednesday, judge Edward Jenkins sentenced the 48-year-old to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, 80 hours of unpaid work. He was also made to pay an £80 victim surcharge.

For more on this story see next week's Waltham Forest Guardian and Chingford Guardian - out on Thursday.