Angus man who smeared excrement on police van while on drugs is jailed

An Angus man who took a cocktail of steroids, legal highs and valium threatened to throw his own faeces at police when he was taken into custody.

Dale Smith entered a stranger’s home after a night out in Montrose and was picked up by police due to public concern over his behaviour on December 16 last year.

The 31-year-old was rushed to Ninewells Hospital because police suspected he had taken substances after a stripsearch.

While under heavy restraint in A&E, Smith urinated on himself and attempted to bite police officers and a member of the public.

And he smeared his own excrement on the inside of a police van when he was subsequently taken to cells in Dundee then threatened to throw handfuls of it at any officer who opened the door.

Forfar Sheriff Court heard Smith, of no fixed abode, had moved to the area to “break the cycle of offending” in his native England.

But he was jailed for nine months by Sheriff Gregor Murray, who told Smith he was “extraordinarily fortunate” the offending was heard as a summary case.

See Friday’s Courier for more on this story.