A man chased teenagers with a knife after hallucinations wrongly convinced him that an armed mob was trying to get into his mum’s home.
Paranoid James McCourt banged on his mother’s door to warn her that people armed with blades were trying to climb through her window.
The 25-year-old vowed to defend his mother from the imaginary group and flung a vase through a top-floor window of her Aberdeen home.
He then ran outside, armed with a kitchen knife, and chased after a group of young teens.
Fiscal depute Ryan Diamond told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that the incident happened on December 12 2021 at a property on Arnage Drive and nearby Arnage Gardens.
‘He was going to stab people’
He said McCourt – who looked “extremely agitated” – banged on the door of his mother’s two-storey terraced house at 10am when she was home alone.
“She later told police the accused was saying there were ten people at the doors with blades and that they were coming through the window,” Mr Diamond added.
“She took him upstairs to try to get him to lie down, however, he started running around the house – stating he was going to stab people and that people were coming to get him.
“At this point, he picked up a lamp and threw it at the window, causing it to break.”
After McCourt returned downstairs, his mum then found him sitting on her sofa, clutching two knives that he had taken from her kitchen drawer.
“He told her he was going to protect her from the people coming to get them,” the fiscal explained.
McCourt’s mother then left the house to go and get help from her daughter.
Chased youths with knife
But McCourt also left the property shortly after his mum and neighbours noticed that he was unsteady on his feet and slurring his words.
“He left the address and witnesses then saw three male youths, aged around 14, walking behind the accused in the same direction,” the court was told.
Moments later, the youths were seen running in the opposite direction on Arnage Drive, towards Arnage Gardens, with the accused running after them – holding a single knife with a three to four-inch blade.
He stopped chasing them and returned to his mother’s house.
At the same time, someone spotted the vase stuck in the broken upstairs window and glass on the ground and they flagged down a passing police car.
Officers entered the building and found McCourt looking like he was under the influence of an unknown substance.
He was cautioned, charged and taken to Kittybrewster police station.
Jail sentence
McCourt, who is currently a prisoner at HMP Grampian in Peterhead, appeared in the dock.
He admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and possession of a knife.
His defence agent Ashley Pollock said her client had already spent one year on remand, the equivalent of 24 months, which will be reduced from his sentence.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin jailed McCourt, formerly of Cloverleaf Grange in Aberdeen, but now of Ardmaleish Terrace, Glasgow, for 27 months – meaning he will serve three months.
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