A shoplifter who broke the jaw of a supermarket worker who tried to stop him stealing has been jailed for more than two years.

Paul Ahchoon assaulted two female staff, two police officers and a customer after being caught with a stolen a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey outside Tesco, in Bury St Edmunds, on May 22.

At Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday, the 28-year-old, of Maynewater Lane, was jailed for 30 months after admitting grievous bodily harm without intent, actual bodily harm, assault, theft, and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

Prosecutor Rachel Law said an employee saw Ahchoon place a bottle of whiskey inside a bag in the spirit aisle at about 11pm.

"When he noticed the assistant, he asked her where the beer was, before walking out and activating the alarm," she added.

After following Ahchoon outside and asking him to return the item, the assistant tried to grab the bag, but was punched with full force to the face and hit a pillar as she fell.

Customer Simon Notley, who was scratched in the face and bitten on the hand when he tried to grab Ahchoon by the collar, required injections and a course of antibiotics for his injuries.

Another employee was left bruised by Ahchoon grabbing her below the elbow before he was finally restrained.

Police arrived and led him into a van, where he shouted, snarled and headbutted the metal grating, before digging his fingers into the arms of both officers in custody.

Ahchoon was on a suspended sentence for threatening behaviour and assaulting a nurse and two police officers at West Suffolk Hospital A&E last March, having already collected five convictions for assaulting police, two for ABH and two for threatening behaviour.

Stephen Mather, mitigating, said Ahchoon deserved full credit for early guilty pleas at magistrates' court on May 22.

He said Ahchoon's offending began after a physical and mental struggle with Crohn's disease forced him to leave a biomedical sciences degree, but that he hoped to resume university studies now the disease was under control.

Ahchoon, who a probation report said had a propensity for violence and difficulty dealing with authority, was jailed for 30 months by Judge John Devaux, who recommended Mr Notley for a High Sheriff's award for "intervening and getting injured when many others would not."