A Fife sex offender who breached strict court orders by having Snapchat on his phone torched his scatter flat when police tried to arrest him.
James Haggerty was jailed for 18 months after admitting his role in a three-hour siege in Kennoway six weeks ago.
Haggerty smashed windows and walls, barricaded himself inside, started fires and threatened the blow up the house amid a full-scale emergency response.
The incident came less than a month after Haggerty was released from jail for severely injuring a police officer who suspected him of another breach of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
That attack was carried out less than a fortnight after Haggerty was released from another prison sentence.
Phone check spiralled out of control
In 2020, Haggerty was furnished with a stringent SOPO at Perth Sheriff Court which prohibits him from deleting any internet history or messages.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court this week, fiscal depute Alistair McDermid explained police arrived at the flat in Kennoway on January 12 to conduct a check and found he had installed Snapchat, an app which automatically deletes messages after they are read.
Uncertain of whether merely downloading the app would be a breach, they left without arresting the sex offender.
At 9am the next morning, a larger group of officers arrived at the property to arrest him.
However, Haggerty’s subsequent rampage, beginning by barricading himself inside, made that impossible for nearly three hours.
With two other people in the flat, Haggerty picked up a metal pole and told police: “I’m not going in peace.”
“The accused began hitting walls with the pole, saying he would stab some c***,” Mr McDermid added.
Haggerty began to smash the double-glazed windows and stabbed a hole in one of the property’s internal walls with the pole.
He made threats and held a blade to his own throat while challenging police.
Haggerty lit fires in the property, beginning with one in the living room and told police that he would turn the gas on.
Neighbours were evacuated and fire crews were called, who extinguished the blaze by spraying water through the window Haggerty had smashed.
However, the masked lout spent the next two hours starting more fires and throwing missiles.
Eventually, firearms officers stormed the “ransacked” flat and arrested Haggerty.
‘Out of control’
Haggerty appeared in court via a video link from HMP Perth to admit breaching his SOPO, acting in a threatening manner and culpably and recklessly starting fires.
His solicitor David Bell said: “I think when he saw that amount of police officers, he knew he was getting arrested.
“Whatever the rights and wrongs of that were, his behaviour can’t be mitigated.”
Sheriff Robert More jailed Haggerty for 18 months, including four months for the SOPO breach.
He said the siege was “something which got completely out of control” so “custody is inevitable.”
The sentence would have been 30 months had Haggerty not benefited from young persons’ sentencing guidelines and a plea at the first opportunity.
Criminal history
On December 15, Haggerty received a backdated prison sentence for dislocating a police officer’s shoulder as he arrested him for an alleged SOPO breach.
The officer needed more than two weeks off after the attack.
Haggerty was serving an unexpired portion of his previous sentence when the assault happened.
As part of his SOPO, he had been told not to contact any like-minded criminals but was caught rekindling his romance on a Fife bus with a pervert he met in jail.
Haggerty then tried to headbutt police officers who spotted the couple and was jailed
In 2018, bare-chested Haggerty threatened police with a pole and hurled rocks at buses in Dunfermline.
He later asked how many hits the incident would receive on Facebook and YouTube.
A year earlier, he was chased down the street by Tesco security staff after pilfering more than £150 worth of DVDs.
Later, Haggerty threatened officers, saying he would “get the Travellers down to sort them out”.
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