An Arbroath man who shouted a death threat after losing the rag with noisy students upstairs has been fined.
Wayne Robb appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court and admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner on April 21 last year.
The 45-year-old was in his Arbirlot Road West flat in the afternoon when three 22-year-old students entered the upstairs property and switched on some music.
Procurator fiscal Bill Kermode explained Robb banged on his ceiling and shouted at the trio to turn down the volume.
But at that time, only one of them was present.
A few hours later, the two other witnesses arrived and Robb shouted: “Oi, have you been phoning the police on me?”
He added: “I’ll kill you.”
The police were contacted.
Defence agent Billy Rennie said: “He’s lived there for 13 years without any issues with neighbours.
“He does have previous convictions of an analogous nature.
“This was the culmination of a long period of difficulties he’d been experiencing with noise.
“Those witnesses from upstairs have now moved out.”
Robb admitted shouting, swearing, threatening violence and threatening to kill.
Sheriff Krista Johnston fined him £150 plus a £10 victim surcharge.
She said: “The difficulty for you is you come before the court with an increasing record of similar behaviour before.
“The court’s patience can only last so long.”
Paranoid ex
A paranoid ex-boyfriend has been jailed after targeting his former partner before spitting in a police officer’s face.
Josh Lindsay turned up at the woman’s home on Dundee’s Spey Drive in the early hours of the morning before making violent threats and repeatedly kicking a door.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told how Lindsay was angered after believing the man that the woman had cheated on him with was in the property.
The 20-year-old, of Clepington Road, previously admitted attending at the property on August 27 2022, repeatedly ringing the buzzer, repeatedly banging the window and shouting at the woman while holding a stone.
He repeatedly banged and shouted threats of violence through the letterbox and repeatedly kicked a door.
First offender Lindsay, a father of a young child, then spat in the face of PC Corrie Tadden-Paterson at close range as he was being arrested.
After background reports were prepared, solicitor John Boyle said his client had suffered from a “fairly traumatic childhood” and was highly anxious about losing contact with his child.
With Lindsay being under 25, he could have been made subject to a community-based disposal as per the guidelines on sentencing young people.
However, Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said that only a prison term was appropriate due to the gravity of the offence. Lindsay was sentenced to 10 months detention and made subject to a three-year non-harassment order.
100mph drifter
A footballer has swerved a driving ban after he was caught drifting down the M90 at more than 100mph.
Owen Martin, who plays in goals for Kelty Hearts U20, was told he had put lives at risk as he sped along the motorway on April 16 last year.
The 19-year-old was originally charged with dangerous driving.
The court heard he drove a grey Seat Leon SE at speeds in excess of 100mph while repeatedly and deliberately drifting and crossing the carriageway edge markings, between the Kinross and Crook of Devon junctions.
The 19-year-old was told: “Your licence is hanging by a thread.”
Cannabis farmer
A Fife cannabis farmer has been placed under a curfew after failing to make the most of structured court intervention.
James Purdie, of Lochleven Road in Lochore, previously admitted producing cannabis and possessing both cannabis and heroin at his home on January 15 in 2022.
Fiscal depute Amy Robertson explained police seized 16 live plants, as well as 17g of heroin and 3g of cannabis.
The 43-year-old returned to Dunfermline Sheriff Court, having been subject to a structured deferred sentence.
Sheriff Francis Gill told him: “Mr Purdie, when you pled guilty the court gave you an opportunity.
“For various reasons, you didn’t take that opportunity.”
He imposed a restriction of liberty order, keeping Purdie in his home between 7pm and 7am for the next three months.
Killer’s parole hopes hit
A Dundee murderer’s hopes of freedom have been pulled even further away after he admitted stashing an illicit iPhone in his HMP Perth cell.
Killer Matthew Pope was brought from the Edinburgh Road jail to Perth Sheriff Court where he pled guilty to harbouring the contraband.
Fiscal depute Erika Watson told the court that on September 20 last year, a routine search of Pope’s cell was carried out by prison staff.
The 32-year-old, who shares a cell with another inmate, was found to have an iPhone and a charger.
Solicitor James Caird said: “He takes full responsibility for this.”
He explained his client had been using the device to stay in touch with family.
Sheriff Alison McKay added two months onto the end of Pope’s sentence.
She said: “You know fine well what you are allowed to have in prison and what you’re not allowed while in prison.”
The phone was also forfeited to the crown.
In 2014, Pope was ordered to spend at least 17 years in jail after he struck Michael Given, 29, on the head with a wooden post with nails sticking out of it and punched, kicked and stamped on his body in Elders Court, Dundee, a year earlier.
Four months before being caught with this phone, Pope had admitted hiding an illicit SIM card in his cell too.
In 2017, he also received a six month sentence after possessing an illegal phone and charger while in jail.
Twisted carer ‘should be behind bars’
The family of an elderly dementia patient who was assaulted and mocked in a video by a senior care worker in Fife has said justice is “not even close” to being done.
Liam Stark was this week sentenced to unpaid work for a horrifying attack on a woman in her 80s at the Benore Care Centre in Lochore.
The 22-year-old also filmed his victim in just her underpants and a T-shirt as he laughed and chanted “Donald, where’s your troosers.”
Now the woman’s son has spoken out to condemn the sentence.
He said Stark should be behind bars, but instead was given ample time to complete a community work order.
Speaking to The Courier following the court hearing, he said he felt “disappointed”.
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