A KNIFE-wielding passenger who threatened to stab another man was hauled off a train at Taunton Station, a court has heard.

Joe Desambrois had been acting aggressively towards a man who was travelling with his heavily pregnant wife, their four young children, his mother and their two dogs.

Desambrois, 25, of Mancroft Avenue, Lawrence Weston, Bristol, admitted using or threatening unlawful violence on September 9 last year when he appeared at Taunton Crown Court.

Nikki Coombe, prosecuting, said he started to swear and got into an argument with the family, who were travelling from Wolverhampton, after he got on the train at Bristol with his mother and his dog.

Other passengers felt "very distressed and were trying not to attract his attention" as he moved towards the luggage rack and took a knife out of his bag, said Mrs Coombe.

She said: "He was saying (to the father), 'I'll put this blade in you'. The children were crying. His mother was trying to calm him down.

"He told the man to get off at the next station so he could stick the blade in him."

Desambrois was "agitated and aggressive" when police ejected him from the train at Taunton and officers found the knife in his mother's handbag.

Emma Martin, defending, said: "He overreacted. It was unpleasant and utterly unnecessary."

But she said he has had a "significant life change" since the incident, is in full-time employment and has a stable partner.

She added that at the time he was travelling to see his terminally ill grandfather and felt quite threatened by the other man's dogs.

She said: "He's very remorseful. He had anxiety and depression at the time."

A probation report said Desambrois, who had abused drink and drugs in the past, had shown "impulsive behaviour and poor self control".

Judge David Ticehurst sentenced him to a 12-month community order, with 150 hours unpaid work and ordered him to pay £500 costs and a £85 statutory surcharge.

The judge said: "What a stupid way to behave. More importantly there were young children there."