By Dave Lord

A HOMELESS MAN who walked 5000 miles after suffering a brain haemorrhage was arrested after falling asleep on a Perthshire road.

Perth Sheriff Court heard how Colin Williams embarked on a nomadic lifestyle after he was subjected to a serious assault in Edinburgh two years ago.

Doctors diagnosed that he had suffered a brain haemorrhage as a result of the attack, and he resolved to spend the next few years walking all over Britain and Ireland.

But Williams, described as having no fixed abode, found his new lifestyle brought him into almost constant contact with the police—Perthshire being just the latest in a long line of places he has been apprehended.

At the sheriff court yesterday the 55-year-old admitted that on November 4, both in Madderty and in a police vehicle on the way to Perth, he conducted himself in a disorderly manner, shouted, swore, threatened violence and made racial remarks.

Depute fiscal Stuart Richardson told the court, “At 7.40am on the day in question police received various calls relating to the behaviour of the accused.

“The first call related to his pushing a trolley along the middle of an unclassified road. Police then received a second call suggesting he was lying asleep in the road. Police attended and found the accused asleep on the grass verge of the road.”

He said Williams did not take at all well to being disturbed.

“Police asked the accused for his details and he accused them of harassment, saying he was always being persecuted. He swore at the officers and called one of them a Jew who would have been gassed by the Nazis.

“He also racially abused the officer on the way to police headquarters in Perth.”

Solicitor Mike Tavendale said his client had spent the last two years walking at least 20 miles a day with no obvious purpose.

“Mr Williams is genuinely of no fixed abode,” he said.

“He was the victim of an assault in Edinburgh two years ago which led to him sustaining a brain haemorrhage.

“Since then he has followed what can best be described as an itinerant lifestyle. He has walked 5000 miles across all of Britain and Ireland.

“He tells me the police in Britain are different to the police in Ireland.

“While the police in Ireland never stop him he claims he is apprehended at least twice a week in Britain. It is this fact that led him to make the somewhat confused statement about Jews and Nazis—he was trying to suggest that he was persecuted.”

Mr Tavendale told the court that Williams had merely stopped for a rest at the side of the road and could not understand why police had asked him personal details.

“He would like to apologise to police officers and he can now see they were only doing their job. He has no income at all and has already spent 10 days in custody in relation to this matter.

“Mr Williams has adopted a lifestyle that may not be to everybody’s taste but it is his choice.”

Sheriff Michael Fletcher said that, in light of Mr Williams’ unusual personal circumstances, his sentencing options were “extremely limited.”

“The only way I can see to deal with this is by way of a custodial sentence,” he said.

“You will be sentenced to 23 days, backdated to the day you were arrested.”