Charges against a builder accused of attacking two men with a machete outside a butchers shop during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations have been dropped.

Calvin Fairweather of Barrow Road, Streatham, was due to stand trial accused of two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm, but the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence, when he appeared at Croydon Crown Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors alleged Mr Fairweather was identified on CCTV carrying a machete.

But the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was insufficient evidence to pursue a conviction.

Five men were taken to hospital suffering stab wounds after an incident outside J & J Halal Butcher on High Street, Thornton Heath.

Fairweather pleaded guilty to a new charge of affray in connection to the same incident at about 5pm on Saturday, June 2 last year.

He admitted hurling an egg at a cashier during a row in the shop He was told by Judge Jeremy Gold, he would not face an immediate custodial sentence.

Robert Newcombe, defending, said Fairweather had spent that afternoon at his allotment prior to the incident.

He said: "First of all can I apologise for my client's behaviour in the shop, he accepts he should have exercised restraint. He was told to move aside and was sworn at, he was called a black b******.

"He asked the man to repeat what was said and he did repeat it.

"Fairweather said the Asian man should have known better than to give racial abuse living in the UK. He flipped over the eggs nearby and hurled an egg at the cashier."

The court heard Fairweather, a builder and dad-of-three, would not normally go to the butchers shop, but went because he wife was unable to go because of recent operation.

Judge Gold said: "I don't regard this as a case for immediate custody, but I want to investigate other alternatives apart from community penalties that will address any difficulties he has in keeping his temper.

"You have had the good sense to plead guilty to a lesser offence at the first opportunity. I am adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report to investigate a little more about your background."

Fairweather will be sentenced on May 8.