Man jailed after fruit machine meltdown in Aberdeen pub

A man has been jailed after hurling chairs around an Aberdeen pub and calling a member of staff a paedophile.

Ian Gray went into Archibald Simpson’s on Castle Street on October 30 2019 despite being banned from the premises.

The 39-year-old began playing a fruit machine only for a pub worker to unplug it and he then became “irate”.

He then began hurling chairs around the pub.

Gray, who appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court via video link, admitted a single charge of threatening or abusive behaviour.

The court was told Gray, of King’s Crescent, Aberdeen, had visited the city centre premises before leaving and then returning.

Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton said: “The accused appeared at the locus before leaving again. The accused then returned to the pub and was playing at the fruit machine.

“The accused was requested to leave but he ignored this.

“A member of staff unplugged the fruit machine and the accused became irate.  He called the staff member a paedo and started throwing chairs around.

Defence agent Peter Keene said: “This is a man with previous convictions but also a lot of problems. His drug problem has been defeated.

“He has been in prison since August and it is now time to test his mettle on the outside.

“He would benefit from an early release and he has a house and a psychiatric nurse assigned to him.”

Sheriff Donald Ferguson jailed Gray for six months.

Jailed for breaking into court building

At the end of last year, Gray was jailed for 13 months for breaking into an Aberdeen court building.

He forced open three secure doors at the Aberdeen Sheriff Court Annexe building, which is normally used to host high court and sheriff and jury trials.

Gray was seen on CCTV making his way around the building, looking behind the reception desk and even going through drawers of stationary in an office used by the Procurator Fiscal Service on Friday, August 21.

He walked around the city centre building for 20 minutes then left empty-handed.

He went on to target the Carmelite hotel nearby just days later and made off with Prosecco and a pair of headphones.

Gray pled guilty to housebreaking with intent to steal and theft by housebreaking.

The court heard he had been “self-medicating” with crack cocaine and had made his way into the building to take more drugs.

A previous court hearing was told there was no court business on the day of the break-in.

When a maintenance engineer returned to the building a few days later he contacted security who searched the building.

Nobody was inside but various items were found out of place and a footprint was found on the door of a small office used by the Procurator Fiscal Service.

Police were able to identify Gray through CCTV with the footage showing him making his way into the building at Marischal Street at around 10.40pm and he left at 11pm.