A drunk man “embraced” a Morrisons delivery driver before assaulting him, a court has heard.
Hector Maclean leaned against the worker’s van preventing him from opening the door before enfolding him in the unwanted embrace.
When the uncomfortable worker moved away Maclean grabbed and struck him, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Maclean admitted a charge of assaulting a retail worker in relation to the incident on December 27 of last year
He also pled guilty to two charges of threatening or abusive behaviour relating to two further separate incidents.
Fiscal depute Adele Gray said the supermarket worker started his shift at around 11am on the day in question and was tasked with dropping groceries at Maclean’s Inverness home.
But when he arrived at the address Maclean was standing outside and “swinging his arms about”.
When the worker tried open the door to access the shopping he was unable to as Maclean was leaning on the vehicle.
It was at this point that Maclean “embraced” the man, leaning “backwards and forwards” with their bodies touching.
‘Boris Johnson, you love him’
When the worker, who was uncomfortable with the contact, put a stop to the encounter, Maclean said: “You’re f***ing English, Boris Johnson, you f***ing love him” and told him to “f*** off back home”.
The worker returned to his store and police were contacted.
The court Maclean had been arrested on July 11 of last year when householders reported him to police for shouting and swearing in the street while “seemingly intoxicated”.
He told one: “You’re a useless piece of s***. No one will ever marry you you fat piece of s***.” and stated: “I’m the protector of women in the street.”
The final incident took place on January 19 of this year when Maclean was within Gunsmiths bar in Inverness and began bothering people there, using the N-word and calling customers names including “c***” and “b****”.
After this, Ms Gray said, he “walked over to the witness and asked him outside for a fight.”
He was escorted from the premises.
“The accused outside told witnesses that he would later come back and kill them,” Ms Gray told Sheriff Gary Aitken.
‘Embarrassed and ashamed’
Solicitor Willie Young, for Maclean, said his client was “heavily under the influence of alcohol” at the time of the crimes and added: “He is genuinely embarrassed and ashamed in terms of the way he conducted himself.”
He said Maclean had since taken steps to address his “considerable difficulty” with alcohol.
Sheriff Aitken told Maclean, of Crown Street, Inverness: “If it wasn’t for the fact that the penny seems to have dropped and you are doing something about your drinking you would just be going to jail for this string of drunken behaviour. There’s just no excuse for it.”
Placing Maclean on a community payback order with 12 months of supervision and 150 hours of unpaid work in the community, the sheriff added: “I will give you a chance to try and sort yourself out.”
