A man responsible for a series of bizarre attacks on pensioners after they sneezed in Carlisle city centre has been spared an immediate jail term.

Stephen Jackson, 49, admitted five attacks on mostly elderly victims who either sneezed or were using hankies.

He had denied, but was convicted of, two public order offences – one when he spat at a baby girl in her pram and another when he verbally abused a 49-year-old man with Down’s syndrome.

Jackson was given a sentence of six months' imprisonment, suspended for a year.

District Judge Gerald Chalk told the defendant: "I think there has been significant harm."

At the city’s magistrates court, Jackson, of Dixon Court, off Shaddongate, who suffers from schizophrenia and paranoia, previously entered guilty pleas to four assaults by beating and one common assault.