An Angus man who wrecked a caravan and smashed a stranger’s window thought he was “being chased by pirates” due to an alcohol-fuelled breakdown.
Mark Ewen from Brechin let himself into businessman Raymond Clark’s caravan at Esk Glazing and left it a blood-soaked mess on May 16 this year.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard the 43-year-old had earlier hurled a slab through an Arbroath window during a hallucination brought on by “two or three weeks” of solid drinking.
The father-of-three admitted breaking in to the caravan in the Basin View compound, smearing blood on the window, floor and curtains, littering the furnishings with more than 40 cigarette butts, urinating and defecating on the floor and furnishing, and setting fire to the fittings in the sink.
Ewen, of Guthrie Park, admitted throwing a concrete slab through a window in Bridge Street the same day, and also eating a meal without paying for it at Royal Montrose Golf Club in Traill Drive the day before.
Fiscal depute Kirsten Letford said: “Mr Clark, a 79-year-old male, is the owner of the business and caravan, which he last checked in on May 2.
“At around 4pm on the day in question, members of staff approached Mr Clark and informed him of their suspicion the accused was sleeping in the caravan.”
On opening the door he saw the occupant was lying in a “bloodstained” trailer.
Mrs Letford said the Arbroath incident has cost £300 to repair, and Ewen had already repaid the £190 in cleaning costs at the caravan.
She said: “On May 16 in Bridge Street at around noon the occupant was lying dozing on the couch in her living room, and she heard an unfamiliar noise in the garden.
“Moments later she heard a crash and a slab came through the window.”
Solicitor Nick Markowski said his client had been struggling with an alcohol problem and had been given a nine-month sentence for other offending last year.
“He got out of prison and was drink-free for a time until there was some stress in his life, a neighbourhood dispute,” he added.
“He’s reported to me he lost two or three weeks of his life.
“He reported to me he was hallucinating and he thought he was being chased by pirates.”
Mr Markowski said Ewen had “stumbled across” the caravan during a period of living on the street.
Deferring sentence on a high-tariff basis to January 26, Sheriff Pino Di Emidio said: “I would be much tempted to sentence you to a period of imprisonment but you have made good the damage to the caravan and that stays me from going down that line.”
