A 48-year-old man has been charged after he assaulted a woman and threatened police officers with a knife in a Yatton café.

Richard Penny, of Mendip Road, has been charged with racially aggravated assault, possessing a knife, threatening a person with a knife and using abusive words likely to cause harrassment, alarm or distress.

The charges relate to an incident in a café at approximately 8.50am yesterday (Tuesday) in which a woman in her 40s was assaulted and another woman, an off-duty detention officer, was threatened. Attending police officers were then threatened with a knife.

Penny has also been charged with another count of using threatening/ abusive words likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress after two women were verbally abused in Yatton High Street at around 12pm on Friday.

Penny appeared via video link at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Tuesday) where he was remanded in custody pending a hearing at Bristol Crown Court at a date yet to be set.