A KNIFEMAN who threatened to cut off the fingers of a convenience shop worker during a terrifying raid has been jailed for four years.

Christopher Williams burst into the Premier Stores on Faringdon Road brandishing a knife at the two women behind the counter.

And as the 24-year-old demanded they had over takings he barked 'don't press any panic buttons or I'll stab you' before issuing the threat about their fingers.

Williams was on early release from an eight-month prison sentence after being caught with indecent images of children for a second time.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the robbery took place during the afternoon of Wednesday, June 29.

She said the defendant had been in and out of the shop a couple of times before the raid, as if waiting to see if the coast was clear.

"He came in just after 4pm, his words to her and her colleague were 'I have got a knife', and she could see that he indeed did have a knife," she said.

"He said 'I have got a knife, don't press any panic buttons, I will stab you, empty the till, I want everything from the till'.

"At the time she was counting the money he was threatening to cut her fingers off. When she finished taking all the money out he snatched it and ran off."

The incident was caught on the store's CCTV system and police immediately recognised him from his history of downloading indecent images.

Miss Squire said it was known that he was wanted for questioning and he handed himself in to a police point at Gloucester train station.

"He told them he was wanted for armed robbery. He said 'I did it, there ain't no evidence, it is what I do, rob shops and Mercedes'," she said.

Although the shop staff thought he got away with about £1,000 he told the probation service it was more like £1,800.

Williams, of no fixed abode but formally of Stonefield Close, Eastleaze, pleased guilty to one count of robbery.

The court heard that as well as two convictions for indecent images he was also caught with a small vegetable knife while wearing three coats and a Kevlar vest.

Tony Bignall, defending, said his client did not have a history of serious violence 'apart from in his fantasies, that is,' he said.

He said that he had a low IQ with borderline learning difficulties and had experienced abuse since he was young.

Jailing him Recorder Timothy Rose said: "You very seriously threatened, primarily, one female member of staff in a variety of ways.

"You said to her among other things, if she didn't do what you wanted you would cut her fingers off.

"The experience for her and the other female member of staff present must have been truly frightening but I am not told of any longer, wider, level of harm.

"Although a level of harm must be present because when people have experiences like that it puts them in fear for the future for the next time they are on their own in the shop, and it can be a devastating experience.

"I am going to sentence you on the basis that, reading between the lines of what I have read, that you probably knew in your mind that day that you weren't going to use the knife. I accept that you were not going to stab anybody, cut anybody.

"But there is a rider to that: when you are in a position of threatening people you can't tell how things are going to turn out."