A Peterhead man has been jailed after threatening his neighbour with a knife for not giving him any cigarettes.
Wheelchair-bound John McGowan, 58, appeared from custody in Peterhead Sheriff Court to hear his sentence.
Fiscal depute Peter Finnon told the court McGowan, who is on remand for another matter, had knocked on his neighbour’s door on August 12 last year asking her to give him cigarettes.
When she explained she did not have any cigarettes to give him, McGowan became angry.
Mr Finnon said: “He became aggressive and said he was in the mafia and would cause her harm.
“She closed the door.
“A short time later [McGowan] went back to the door, which was answered by the male partner of the neighbour – who observed him holding a knife.”
‘You can’t threaten people with a knife if they don’t give you cigarettes’
McGowan, the court was told, started to threaten the man and again demanded cigarettes, but the neighbour closed the door and rang the police.
“McGowan began kicking and shouting and was banging on the door of the address when the police attended,” Mr Finnon said.
“He was found with a knife in his possession.
“The police said to him, ‘you can’t threaten people with a knife if they don’t give you cigarettes’. He replied – ‘I f***ing can’.”
“And asked why he had a knife? He said – ‘because they would not give me fags’.”
Whilst being arrested, McGowan began threatening to kill the officers and called them racist names.
Mr Finnon told the court McGowan had called them “foreign c**ts’ and said they “should not be in the country” and said, “I will kill you and your family – I will bury you first”.
McGowan’s defence agent Marianne Milligan said her client’s behaviour was “bizarre” and “unhinged” and a psychiatric report had classed him as being vulnerable.
‘You are clearly the author of your own misfortune’
She added: “He is still not on medication,” and asked for him to be dealt with by way of a community payback order.
Sheriff Annella Cowan said she did not know how she could do that given he was already in custody “for an indefinite period”.
On sentencing McGowan to three months in prison, Sheriff Cowan said: “I have read all that relates to you very carefully, you are clearly the author of your own misfortune.
“You know perfectly well what you’re doing, and you could stop if you wanted to.
“It is not up to you to threaten neighbours with a knife and make unpleasant remarks just because you wanted a cigarette.”
McGowan’s address was listed as King Street, Peterhead.
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