A "CAREER criminal" who held supermarket staff at knifepoint before embarking on a police chase down the M11 has been jailed for five years.
Lee Tedstone, 37, drove a stolen car to the Lidl supermarket in Rayne Road, Braintree, armed with a kitchen knife.
He walked into the store brandishing the knife, which had a nine-inch blade, and held it to the neck of cashier, Gareth Thomason, "with words to the effect of 'open the door or I will blow your head off'."
Tedstone then grabbed fellow worker Shantelle Fallowfield by the arm and walked her to the staff room before he put the knife to the throat of Glynn Guppy, who opened the safe.
Having grabbed more than £1,800 in cash, Tedstone then headed back towards the stolen Ford Fiesta in the Lidl car park.
At Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, prosecutor Stephen Rose said: "The process of evacuating the store began and some attempt was made bravely by the staff to contain the defendant in the staff room but he forced the door to exit the premises."
A member of the public tried to block Tedstone as he left the car park but the robber rammed his way past the car and sped away towards the M11. He drove – without a driving licence or insurance – through a number of red traffic lights, smashed into parked cars and reached speeds of up to 90mph on the M11 on August 10 last year before crashing into a line of police cars, and being apprehended.
At Chelmsford prison Tedstone attacked another person – this time fellow inmate Rhyse Montgomery.
Mr Rose continued: "It seems he had been there less than an hour – barely long enough for anyone to know who he was – when this defendant had walked with purpose towards Mr Montgomery and he deliberately cut into his throat with a razor blade.
"He was later seen attempting to sharpen a plastic knife that was also found in his possession."
Mr Montgomery was rushed to Broomfield Hospital where doctors stitched the 2.5cm-deep, 3cm-long wound.
Tedstone, who is from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, had stolen the car from a woman in that town who was away on holiday at the time.
He has a long history of offending, and has already served a 10-year sentence in jail for robbery.
After a variety of psychiatric tests he has been held at Ashworth high security hospital since his arrest.
Defending, Daniel Jerome said that Tedstone was responding well to treatment for psychosis and that he would be moved to Belmarsh prison as soon as sentencing was complete.
Judge Christopher Ball QC said: "This was for all those members of the public a nightmare – a terrifying event unfolding before them with an out-of-control and threatening, and knife-wielding offender."
He added: "Mr Tedstone's record is appalling. It's a career of crime – a life of crime.
"I'm quite satisfied that it's the abuse of narcotics over and over that has led to the instability that now underpins his personality."
Tedstone, wearing a blue and white tracksuit and flanked by three guards in the dock, was sentenced to five years in jail for the first indictment of robbery, possession of a bladed article, dangerous driving and handling stolen goods to run concurrently with his second indictment of GBH.
Tedstone was told however, that he will not be released from prison until medical staff, prison officers and the courts believe that it is safe for the public to do so.
