A man who went on a two-hour rampage in the centre of Aberystwyth has been jailed for two years.

Ashley Keegan 20, stole from a woman who befriended him, brandished a knife on the street and hit a man over the head with a frying pan causing him serious injuries.

Keegan, of Bath Street, admitted theft, wounding, possessing a knife in a public place and criminal damage.

Ian Wright, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that on 29 December Keegan asked Jessica Evans, a stranger, to buy a soft drink for him from the Spar store in Terrace Road.

She felt sorry for him and invited him to her flat where his mood suddenly changed. He began loading a sports bag with food from her fridge and freezer and left with her necklace and a kitchen knife.

A few minutes later, William Pearce saw Keegan in Terrace Road, holding the knife and wearing a balaclava over his head.

Keegan struck the wall outside the TSB branch with the knife before dropping it to the floor, the court heard.

A few minutes later Keegan barged into the home of Luke Young in Mill Street and demanded that he cooked some of the food he had stolen from Miss Evans.

When Mr Young refused Keegan attacked him with a frying pan, striking him over the head at least 10 times with such force the handle broke.

Mr Young managed to escape and a short while later police arrested Keegan in Chalybeate Street.

Although he co-operated at first, once he was in a police van he began to take down his trousers in front of a female officer and would not stop swearing and spitting until he was inside a cell in the town’s police station.

Keegan’s barrister, Dyfed Thomas, said he had been extremely drunk and would now like to apologise to his victims.

Judge Paul Thomas told Keegan he already had an appalling record, at the age of 20, and the events of that night had not been anything approaching a one-off.

He reminded Keegan that Miss Evans had shown him only kindness and he had responded by stealing from her. And Keegan had delivered a “ferocious beating” to Mr Young only because he had been drunk.