A man who terrified Aberdeen residents by trying to force his way into their homes late at night has been warned he is on his “last chance”.
Brandon Booth, 22, attempted to gain entry to a home on Provost Rust Drive during the early hours of the morning where he shouted and tried to push past the homeowner.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the man pleaded with Booth to leave, telling him he had young children in the house.
He then kicked at another woman’s front door and attempted to open it before going around to her back garden.
Booth then broke two windows of another property.
A sheriff described the incident as “a frightening experience” for residents.
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann told the court that at around 5.40am on January 22 this year a male resident heard Booth shout “incoherent ramblings” outside his property.
Booth then approached his front door and “demanded to be let in”.
“The complainer told him he had young children and that he should leave.
“The accused then tried to push past the complainer to get through the door and told him ‘I’ll put you on your back.'”
Mr McMann said the homeowner managed to close his door, but that Booth continued to kick the door for “some time”.
Booth then moved on to another property farther down Provost Rust Drive, where a woman was awoken by him repeatedly kicking her front door.
“She heard him shouting for a person named ‘Diane'”, Mr McMann said.
“The woman told him they did not live there and to go away – her door was open but on a latch.”
When she closed the door, Booth made continued attempts to enter the property before going around to the back garden.
He left sometime later.
Booth pleaded guilty to one charge of behaving in a threatening manner that was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm by repeatedly attempting the enter other people’s homes.
He also admitted one charge of wilfully and recklessly destroying property by breaking two windows at another property.
‘An alarming incident’
Defence agent Neil McRobert told the court that “alcohol seems to be the root cause” of Booth’s offences.
He added: “Mr Booth was looking for a female he knew but it must have been an alarming incident for the people involved.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnstone described Booth’s actions as a “frightening experience for those who live at those properties”.
“I have to take into account your young age,” she said.
“However, you really are on your last chance here.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Johnston sentenced Booth, of Kings Court, Aberdeen, to a community payback order with supervision for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work.
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