Shop assistant Jackie Miles kept her calm when a drunken shoplifter threatened to slit her throat.

Her ordeal began at sleepy Steeple Aston Post Office and Stores yesterday when a young man came in and hung around near the alcoholic drinks.

Mrs Miles said: "He started helping himself to drink and I did what I thought was the right thing - I asked him to put the stuff back and leave or I'd call the police.

"He turned round, became abusive and said he'd cut my throat. Then he left.

"But he came back about ten minutes later and started again.

"We called the police while he was still in the shop.

"I'm still a bit shaken and confused about it because he did threaten to cut my throat and I didn't know if he had a knife or not.

"He was drunk and so I didn't know what he was going to do.

"It was a case of confronting him and putting up with whatever was going to happen.

"The police turned up straight away, thank God."

At the time of the incident there were only three other people in the shop including the postmistress, Susan Holloway, who was left badly shaken.

The shoplifter walked out with three bottles of brandy.

Mrs Miles said: "The police brought him back in for us to identify him and that has frightened her to death."

Police spokesman Richard Goodfellow said a local man had been arrested on suspicion of theft.

The man was in custody at Banbury police station awaiting questioning.

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