A knifeman woke a woman up in the middle of the night ranting about protecting her from a non-existent abuser.
Kaya Bartle, 24, from Perth hammered on the door of the woman’s flat at 4am.
Bartle had been staying directly below the woman, Stephanie Warman, a 27-year-old nurse, on February 21.
Alex Kirk, prosecuting at Falkirk Sheriff Court, said Ms Warman had been in bed, asleep, in her flat in Queen’s Court, Bridge of Allan, when she was woken by banging.
Bartle was shouting, “I can hear every word you’re saying to her.
“You’ve no right to speak to her like that. I’m going to stab you.”
Ms Warman looked out, saw Bartle running away down the common stair and rang 999.
She then went to check on an elderly neighbour to make sure she was OK, and was “shocked” when Bartle opened the neighbour’s door.
Four-inch blade
He immediately began ranting again: “I can hear the way he speaks to you, where is he?
“You don’t have to cover up for him. You don’t have to hide him.”
He then pulled out a knife with a four-inch blade.
Mrs Kirk said: “Ms Warman was petrified and tried to explain there was no one else in her flat, but he wouldn’t listen.
“He shouted, ‘I don’t believe you, if he’s up there I’m going to kill him myself. Take me up there, take me up to your f***ing flat’.”
Ms Warman returned to her flat with Bartle, who gestured for her to sit on the couch.
Mrs Kirk said: “She was so frightened she did as she was asked.”
He sat beside her and still clutching the knife, violently asked where the imagined intruder was.
Ms Warman kept telling him there was no one else in the flat, but Bartle refused to listen.
He then asked her to unlock her phone and give it to him.
Mrs Kirk said: “While still holding the knife he entered his name in her phone as Kyle Bartle, and his telephone number.”
Guilty
When officers arrived and rang Ms Warman’s buzzer, Bartle shouted at her, “Did you just phone the f***ing police?”.
The he threw the knife into the kitchen, and told her: “Don’t worry, darling. I will go and speak to them.”
She was taken to a friend’s address and gave a statement the next day, after which Bartle was arrested, and made a series of admissions.
Bartle, now of Perth, who appeared by video link from Low Moss Prison , pled guilty to having a knife and committing a statutory breach of the peace.
Sheriff Derek Hamilton deferred sentence until July 14 for the defence to consider a victim impact statement, and continued Bartle’s remand in custody.
Bartle’s solicitor, Virgil Crawford, reserved mitigation until the sentencing hearing.
