A violent misogynist threatened to throw the contents of a boiling kettle over two female police officers after subjecting them to foul-mouthed abuse.

Nicholas Scales lost his temper with the two officers who came to his home in Teignmouth to arrest him for an unrelated offence and threatened them with a knife and the boiling water.

He punched one of them and bent back the fingers of another as they were forced to flee his home and call for back up.

He called them dogs, slags, and fascists and made barking noises at them. He later admitted to being a misogynist during a police interview.

One of the officers said she had been shocked by his attitude and said:"I have never witnessed such hatred towards women."

Scales, aged 46, of Cartwright Crescent, Teignmouth, admitted affray and two counts of battery and was jailed for eight months by Judge Erik Salomonsen at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him:"Behaviour such as this can only be met with immediate imprisonment."

Miss Anita Noerr, prosecuting, said officers Paula Symes and Katie Chapman went to arrest Scales on unrelated matters at 4.40 pm on October 2.

There was no reply but the door was unlocked and they went in to find him. He became agitated and started swearing at them and abusing them before picking up a vegetable knife in the kitchen.

He held it against his own wrist and then pointed it at Pc Symes and holding it six inches from her chest. He also grabbed her arm. He told both women he would kill them but put the knife down.

Miss Noerr said:"He said he would pour boiling water over them and switched on a kettle, which started to boil. He picked it up and swung it but both officers avoided the water.

"They retreated and he followed them repeatedly making woofing noises."

He assaulted them both as they were leaving and only went inside when they threatened to use their Captor spray. He eventually gave himself up when more police arrived.

Pc Symes said in an impact statement:"If we had not left the kitchen when we did, we could have been left with catastrophic burns. I have never witnessed such hatred towards women. We remained calm and police but were never going to be able to talk him down."

Miss Julie Brimble, defending, said Scales regrets what he did and has written a letter of apology to the two officers. She said it would be more constructive to allow the probation service to address his anger issues than to send him to jail.

She said Scales became angry because he had been strip searched while in custody after a previous arrest and was worried about facing a similar humiliation.

He is a man of strong views who had been involved with the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats in the past and has done voluntary work, including cleaning beaches.