A man who made several nuisance calls to emergency services and shouted abuse at staff over two days has escaped serious punishment in court.

Stephen Paterson, 67, of George Winter Court, Norwich, pleaded guilty to sending grossly offensive messages by public communication when he appeared in Norwich Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

The phone calls began on Saturday, February 9, where Paterson called an NHS service number and made threats towards the staff.

Prosecutor Victoria Bastock said in one of his rants he screamed: 'I will waste the lot of you.'

He also made a number of nuisance calls to police and repeatedly swore and threatened to kill his neighbour.

The persistent calls carried on into Sunday, February 10.

When asked to explain himself, Paterson, who represented himself, told the court he was frustrated at emergency services for not treating him, and so he became 'a bit peeved'.

Paterson, who said he is disabled and is wheelchair-bound, descended into an incoherent ramble in court in which he claimed the police were not treating him fairly because of his disability.

He also expressed his worry over going to prison.

But chairman of the bench Caroline Money assured the defendant that the offence did not surpass the custody threshold. She said she was going to give Paterson the benefit of the doubt, adding: 'This whole incident was a one-off and you were really, really frustrated and this won't happen again.'

Paterson was given a conditional discharge for six months and was ordered to pay £40 court costs and £20 victim surcharge.