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Pair caused Cowdenbeath siege because they were ‘bored as f**k’

Riot police and negotiators were at the four-hour stand-off. Image: Jim Payne.
Riot police and negotiators were at the four-hour stand-off. Image: Jim Payne.

Two men who barricaded themselves inside a Cowdenbeath flat for four hours told police they were doing it because they were “bored as “f**k”.

Stuart Graham and Grant Pithie hurled glass bottles, cups, plates and a metal saucepan from a first-floor flat window during the siege at Copeland Crescent.

Police arrived at the flat to investigate a noise complaint and were met with hostility at the door, which had been barricaded with a fridge.

A bottle thrown from a window struck the police van.

Mooning Graham challenged police to fight.

The incident attracted a massive emergency response. Image: Jim Payne.

‘A bit of entertainment’

Procurator fiscal depute Jamie Hilland told Dunfermline Sheriff Court the incident was sparked at 6am on August 13 2021.

Mr Hilland said: “Stuart Graham challenged officers to a fight at one point”.

Asked by officers why he was behaving this way, he said he was “bored as f**k ” and that it was a “bit of entertainment”.

The court heard a ceramic coffee cup nearly hit an officer on the head.

The scene on Copeland Crescent. Image: Jim Payne.

Public order officers and siege negotiators were called.

Graham also appeared at the gable end window and exposed his buttocks to officers.

The fiscal said the door to the flat was eventually forced open at around 10:35am and the pair were arrested.

Racist abuse

Mr Hilland said Pithie later told one of the police constables he was an “English c**t” as he was being charged at Dunfermline police station.

Graham, 31, and Pithie, 41, appeared from custody last week.

They admitted culpably and recklessly throwing glass bottles, jars, ornaments, a saucepan, crockery and furniture out of windows and exposing police officers and members of the public below to risk of injury.

Graham, of Cowdenbeath High Street, also pled guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

Pithie, of Links Street, Kirkcaldy, admitted acting in a racially aggravated manner by shouting a racist remark at a police officer.

The court heard Graham is already serving a prison sentence totalling four years and five months, while Pithie is serving a 25-month sentence.

Sheriff Charles Macnair sentenced Graham to a further nine months and Pithie to an additional 10 months in prison.

Alcohol and mental health

Defence lawyers said the pair were both under the influence of alcohol during the incident.

Solicitor Alexander Flett also said Graham has a history of issues with mental health and was not getting treatment at the time.

Defence lawyer Martin McGuire said Pithie has longstanding drug misuse issues and that his father had died during lockdown.

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