TWO supermarket workers endured months of anxiety after a drug addicted shoplifter cut them with a hypodermic syringe, a court was told yesterday.

Heroin addict John Cooke, 25, was caught stealing eight air fresheners but escaped from a storeroom in Kwik- Save, in Ormesby Road, Middlesbrough.

As staff surrounded him, he produced the syringe and waved the needle in horizontal slashing motions, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting.

The needle caught workers Stuart Nicholson and John Dunford on the hands, causing them months of concern, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Medical reports on Cooke showed that he risked death if he continued to abuse heroin, said Paul Cleasby, defending. But after four months on remand, Cooke had quit the habit, he added.

Mr Cleasby said that Cooke wanted to leave Middlesbrough on his release to join relatives in Dorset, where he could find summer work.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: "Those workers must have been terrified for a great deal of time as to what might result for them by your use of that syringe."

Cook, of Collins Avenue, Saltersgill, Middlesbrough, was given a one-year drug testing and treatment order after he pleaded guilty to affray and possessing an offensive weapon on November 8 last year and also to seven offences of shoplifting between May and November.