A judge has deferred sentence on a mental patient who armed himself with a knife after his attempts to contact an NHS crisis team failed.
Martin Fox-Cooper called police to alert them that he was suffering a mental health crisis and in danger of harming himself and called police.
He then went to an all night branch of Tesco in Kingsteignton to buy the weapon and was arrested as he left with the £7 black handled knife, with a a 8.8 cm blade, in his bag.
Fox-Cooper called the mental health crisis team after starting to hear voices while at Newton Abbot bus station late at night on February 7 this year. He was not satisfied with their response and so he called the police.
He has a history of carrying knives dating back more than 20 years and remains at risk of being sent to jail under new laws designed to crack down on inner city violence.
Fox-Cooper, aged 44, who was living at Longford Lane, Kingsteignton, at the time but has since moved to Starcross, admitted possessing a knife in a public place.
Recorder Miss Hannah Willcocks deferred sentence until October to allow time for Fox-Cooper to re-engage with his GP, the mental health services, and probation.
She told him he will receive a suspended sentence if he achieves all these objectives and receives a positive reports.
An earlier hearing was told that Fox-Cooper called the police from the bus station at 11 pm saying he was having a mental health crisis and planned to buy a knife to harm himself or someone else.
Officers guessed that the only shop open at that time was Tesco and intercepted him as he left with the knife in his bag.
Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said a support worker has prepared a plan which would enable his client to reengage with the mental health services.