MURDERER Stuart Hazell was known at his local pub as an aggressive lightweight who once threatened the landlord with a machete.
Randall Tavern landlord Peter Wilson said the 37-year-old, who moved in with Tia's grandmother in Fieldway in 2007, had been barred from the pub in 2009 after trying to start a fight on his first visit.
He added: "He was a horrible man and was trying to pick fights. He could not handle his drink and would have a pint and then start a fight.
"After six months he walked back in and told me he was a changed man; he had a bunch of flowers in his hand.
"I said, 'Well, I will give anyone a second chance,' so he had a pint of Kronenbourg but he started getting aggressive after the second pint.
"I poured his drink into a plastic glass and I told him to leave the premises. This was at about half past one in the afternoon.
"He then went to the table over there and banged it. An old gentleman was sitting over there and the beer went all over him, so one of my regulars decided that was enough and asked him to leave.
"Hazell went for my regular so I threw him out of the pub, threw his flowers after him and told him not to come back again."
But an hour later Mr Wilson, 65, saw Hazell walking up the road carrying a machete.
He said: "I locked all the doors of the pub and called the police. He came up the road and I had all the pub doors shut.
"He walked up the ramp but could not open the door.
"The police were prompt and arrested him."
Hazell was convicted and served jail time for possessing a machete in a public place.
Mr Wilson added: "I was not scared of him, but I was wary of him."
