A man is behind bars after a “chaotic and violent” crime spree spanning three years.
Jason Mullen’s crimes included assaults, resisting police officers, wilfully or recklessly damaging or destroying property and threatening behaviour.
After hearing the details of 10 different charges, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Mullen that he had inflicted “chaos and violence” on people.
Mullen, 21, appeared via videolink for the sentencing hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Fiscal Depute Iain Logan told the court about crimes committed between December 2019 and September 2022.
In the early hours of December 20 2019 Mullen spat in the face of a man outside a city centre takeaway before hurling a bottle of Buckfast at a taxi, smashing its rear window.
He was restrained by security staff working nearby until police arrived.
Man intimidated and headbutted shop worker
On New Year’s Eve 2020 Mullen walked into Crown Stores and asked for alcohol.
The shop assistant, feeling “intimidated”, took him by the arm to try to guide him out of the premises, but was head-butted to the face.
The attack, which left the shop worker uninjured, was captured on CCTV.
On July 7 2022 Mullen entered the Subway in Falcon Square but was asked to leave “due to his level of intoxication”.
He immediately went to the next-door Burger King and began baiting security staff, raising his arms and shouting “come on then, what are you going to do?” before smashing a glass bottle on the ground.
Mr Logan told the court that Mullen’s actions left members of the public in the area “in a state of distress”.
On September 2 of 2022 Mullen had yet another run-in with the law when police were called to Inverness Railway Station because of his behaviour.
Criminal ignored curfew
An officer from British Transport Police found him “in an agitated state” and “acting aggressively”.
When further police arrived and attempted to restrain him he struggled with them, injuring two of the officers.
On two occasions Mullen was caught failing to observe a court-imposed curfew that he remain at his home address between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
Both times police had been called to disturbances involving Mullen, who told officers he had no fixed address and was therefore unable to observe the curfew.
The court heard Mullen, a prisoner in Inverness, had previously been given opportunities to engage with punishments in the community but had failed to do so.
‘A lot of chaos and violence’
Mullen’s solicitor Natalie Paterson said her client had matured since the commission of the offences and was now willing to engage.
However, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told him: “You have inflicted a lot of chaos and violence on people over a number of years. I have to sentence you now on the harm you have caused during this spree.”
She admonished him for the bail breaches and sentenced him to jail terms of varying lengths on the other charges, including two consecutive sentences of six and four months, resulting in a 10-month term.
