A man from Moray waved a meat cleaver at his “extremely large” neighbour and told him, “Look at the size of you – of course I’m going to use it”.
Children watched on as William Wylie pulled the knife from behind his back, during an incident outside Wylie’s council house on Bain Road in Elgin.
The 43-year-old had taken umbrage with the way he believed his neighbour had spoken to him, so he ran inside to grab the 15-inch blade, on May 2 this year.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told Elgin Sheriff Court that Wylie had mistakenly believed a blunt shout of “give us the scooter back” had been directed at him from the couple living nearby.
“He thought they were speaking to him,” she said. “He asked, ‘Who the f*** do you think you’re speaking to? Don’t speak to me like that’.
“He was asked to calm down but this appeared to anger him further. He responded, ‘We will see about that’.”
Wylie then went inside his home and returned, appearing to have something behind his back.
His victim asked if he was armed and Wylie brandished the meat cleaver at him while standing around 10 feet away.
His victim asked: “What are you going to do with that?”
Wylie replied: “Well, look at the size of you – of course I’m going to use it”.
Wylie claimed he had wielded a spanner
After briefly returning inside, Wylie reappeared, without the knife, and continued to argue with his neighbour.
The row only stopped when the complainer’s wife told both men to calm down because children were watching.
When police cautioned and arrested Wylie, he told them he “hadn’t brandished a knife”.
But his claim gave away his guilt because neither of the officers had even mentioned the incident had involved a weapon.
Wylie instead told them that he had threatened his neighbour with a spanner.
At Elgin Sheriff Court, he pled guilty to one charge of threatening or abusive behaviour and another of possession of a meat cleaver.
‘Notoriously bad neighbour’
Defence agent Matthew O’Neill said the victim was “a notoriously bad neighbour” who was about to be moved on from the council house.
He said Wylie had felt he was on the “back foot” due to the height of the neighbour and that’s why he presented the meat cleaver.
“There had been a degree of build-up to this incident and my client felt extremely intimidated,” he said.
“Foolishly, rather than retreating to his home and staying there, he reappeared with this item.”
He said Mr Wylie had suffered an epileptic seizure in the days before the incident and had only ventured out for a short walk with his dog before heading home.
“There appears to have been some confusion over to whom certain language was being directed,” the solicitor added.
“The individual was an extremely large individual. Mr Wylie immediately felt he was on the back foot”.
Background reports on Wylie, of Bain Road in Elgin, deemed him unfit to carry out unpaid work.
Sheriff Eric Brown issued the offender with a £245 fine.
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