A Dundee man heard a noise from his cupboard and opened it to find his downstairs neighbour’s hand poking up.
Paranoid Murray Hanlon believed he was being spied on and was searching the ceiling for listening devices, a court heard.
The shocked victim grabbed the hand and as the neighbour dispute spiralled into violence, he was eventually struck by a knife in an armed brawl with Hanlon and accomplice Gavin Skelly.
The man has since died and his rivals appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for their part in the fight.
Hand appeared in cupboard
The court heard Hanlon lived in the Hepburn Street flat in Dundee, below his victim.
Procurator fiscal depute Catherine Fraser said the upstairs neighbour initially heard a noise in his living room cupboard and opened a door to see the hand “reaching up” out of the floorboards.
The fiscal said there was a “history of disharmony” between the pair and Hanlon, 41, believed there was audio spying equipment in the ceiling.
The court was assured Hanlon’s belief his neighbour was spying on him with listening devices was unfounded.
As the bizarre incident on September 5 last year continued, Hanlon shouted for his upstairs neighbour to “come outside”.
Hanlon and associate Gavin Skelly, 39, then went into the close to confront the resident who lived upstairs, who came out and grabbed a mallet.
‘His days are numbered’
Other neighbours watched through their spyholes as Hanlon and Skelly ran upstairs and made comments about a hammer, stating: “He has barricaded the door, his days are numbered”.
One neighbour saw Skelly with a black-handled kitchen knife, about eight-inches long, in his right hand.
The fiscal depute said the pair ran towards their target, who noticed the knife and was “waving a mallet around”.
Skelly then struck his victim’s left index finger with the knife and Skelly himself was hit on the back of the head with the mallet.
Sentence deferred
Skelly appeared from custody at Glenochil to plead guilty to shouting and swearing and brandishing a kitchen knife and engaging in a stand-up fight, causing injury and committing a breach of the peace.
Hanlon admitted a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and uttering threats of violence.
The victim suffered a laceration to his finger and Skelly needed three stitches for a wound behind his ear.
The fiscal depute said the third man had also been charged in relation to the incident but has subsequently “passed away”.
Sheriff Susan Duff deferred sentence on Hanlon and Skelly until June 12 for the production of background reports.
Skelly was remanded in custody and Hanlon released on bail.
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