A firebrand neighbour-from-hell has been found guilty of racially abusing a Polish resident while holding a knife, after he issued a bizarre “roasting” from the witness box.
Booming Paul Lawlor stood trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court accused of calling neighbour Dominik Janota a “Polish pig” and challenging him to a fight while holding a kitchen knife on April 18.
Labelled “an interesting character, to say the least,” the 53-year-old was convicted by Sheriff Ian Anderson after he flew off the handle while giving evidence.
The court heard from machine operator Mr Janota who said downstairs neighbour Lawlor had stood at his back door armed and laughing when he returned from taking the bins out.
Aided by an interpreter, he said that Lawlor had gestured slashing his stomach and throat with the green kitchen knife.
Another Links Street neighbour, Amanda Gourlay said she could hear Lawlor bellow “come on you f***ing Polish pig” from her upstairs window 30m away.
The 57-year-old said she met Mr Janota coming up the stairs “shaking.”
“I didn’t have to see him,” she said. “I knew it was him.”
She told defence solicitor Kieran Clegg that she openly disliked Lawlor and had endured eight years of neighbour disputes.
Meltdown giving evidence
Giving evidence, Lawlor told the court he was enjoying a cigarette and a coffee at his back door.
He went on to claim Mr Janota suddenly forced him back into his home whilst making accusations about vandalising his car.
Lawlor claimed Mr Janota, 47, used a “big metal chair” to “rattle” his back door 12 to 14 times as he phoned police.
“I called him a f***ing kurwa, it’s a Polish word for a***hole,” he said.
“One minute I’m having a coffee and the next minute I’m fighting for my life in my own house.”
He vehemently denied being racist in cross-examination by fiscal depute Laurelle Johnstone, whom he referred to as “sweetheart” throughout.
Animated Lawlor explained that rather than being racist, he’d just give people “a roasting.”
Roaring in the witness box, he added: “I’ll give you a roasting right now, where do Polish homosexual rapists go on holiday? Kirkcaldy.”
Animated Lawlor said Ms Gourlay’s evidence was “Mandy’s five-year-old brain trying to get me done” and labelled the allegations as “nonsense.”
Mr Clegg said: “He’s an interesting character to say the least, but that’s not criminal.”
Sheriff Anderson told him: “I did believe the witnesses. I will find you guilty of this charge.”
Lawlor was convicted of shouting, swearing, challenging him to a fight whilst being in possession of a knife and making a racially offensive remark.
Sentence was deferred until September 29 for reports.
History of neighbour disputes
Last year, Lawlor admitted another charge of threatening or abusive behaviour towards a neighbour at the block.
He shouted and swore at the neighbour in their garden on August 17 and 18 last year.
Two decades ago, Lawlor savagely attacked a terminally-ill neighbour in East Wemyss, along with his 76-year-old friend.
He was sent to the State Hospital at Carstairs, having been found guilty at the High Court in Forfar of the brutal assaults.
John Murphy, 55, had been told he had terminal leukaemia and only had weeks to live on the same day that unprovoked Lawlor attacked him.
Lawlor claimed to have deep religious beliefs and called himself “bestial” in court.
He also attacked elderly George Moss, hitting him several times on the head and body with an object.
Lawlor was the victim of a brutal New Year’s Day attack in 2016 and had to spend four days in hospital after being attacked in his Links Street flat.
He was hit over the head with a glass vase, knocked unconscious and repeatedly kicked in the face by the steel toe-capped boots of Keith Hemsley.
Lawlor was left with “holes in his face” and Hemsley was jailed for three years.
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