A 19-year-old youth accused of threatening a couple with a machete in a Llandudno street was locked up by a judge who said he had been in “total chaos.”

Kyle Jones, of Abbey Road, Llandudno, was “struggling,” his barrister Simon Killeen told Caernarfon crown court. “He’s a 19-year-old boy living in a hostel. He’s never known his father. His mother was a drug addict and died three years ago. He’s no siblings.

“He has no family except for his grandma. He’s close to her. She does help as much as she can. He needs serious intervention,” Mr Killeen said.

“This is a young man who is clearly going to find custody difficult.” He had no role models.

Jones admitted threatening someone with a blade in Kings Road, Llandudno, on September 5.

He also pleaded guilty to four thefts of alcohol from shops and common assault. He was locked up for 17 months.

Prosecutor Elen Owen said he told an assistant at the One Stop store in Great Orme’s Road, Llandudno: "I’m shoplifting, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

But he’d dropped his phone.

When he confronted the couple, Jones had demanded a man tell him his name. But the teen was known to the pair. He had walked off.

Counsel said the machete had been found in an alleyway.

Judge Nicola Jones said the defendant had slapped a shop assistant and hurled a bottle of washing up liquid which missed him.

He’d been on a “rampage.” The judge told him: "You are a very young man who has had an extremely troubled and sad life so far.”

On September 3 and 5 he had been in “total chaos.”

But Judge Jones added to the teen: "You are not a lost cause at your age.”