A Buckie man who threatened to burn his neighbours’ house down with a Molotov cocktail has been jailed.
Jody Bruce went to the next door property and knocked on the window demanding the man come out and talk.
When he refused, Bruce told them he was “going to burn the house down”, stating that he had a “petrol bomb” which he attempted to light.
Bruce, 46, appeared from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of threatening or abusive behaviour towards the couple in relation to the incident on July 25 of last year.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that it was the early hours of the morning when police were first called to Anderson Drive in Buckie where both Bruce and his victims lived.
Following an incident, which was not explained to the court, an officer attended at the scene and noted Bruce appeared “confrontational and angry”.
Neighbour saw petrol bomb in Jody Bruce’s hand
Such was his presentation that more police officers were called. When they spoke with him they noted him to be intoxicated and still drinking, but cooperative.
But when police left the scene at 3.40am it was only minutes before Bruce “appeared outside the living room window” of the neighbouring home and knocked on the glass.
“The witness looked up, seeing the accused who shouted at him to come out and talk to him, but he refused,” Mrs Gair said.
“He told [the witness] that if he didn’t go out and talk to him he was going to burn the house down.”
The court heard that the couple then noticed Bruce was holding “what they described as a bottle with thin brown coloured rope and what looks like a grey sock in his hand”.
‘I’m going to get more petrol’
“At this point, the accused stated he had a petrol bomb and started to try and light the rope,” the fiscal depute said, adding that he only succeeded in burning his thumb.
One of the witnesses asked Bruce why he was doing it, while the other captured the scene on her mobile phone.
Bruce then told the pair that “it wasn’t over” and said he was “going to get more petrol”.
Police were called and the mobile phone footage helped identify Bruce.
“The witnesses were visibly shaken and terrified by the accused’s actions and could not understand why he was targeting them,” Mrs Gair told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank.
Officers went to Bruce’s address where they found him to be “hostile” and a bottle with a rope and cloth was found near the door.
Bruce was arrested and subsequent testing revealed the bottle to contain a mix of ethanol and white spirit.
Solicitor Grant Daglish, for Bruce, told the court his client “has no memory of this incident whatsoever”.
He explained that Bruce had been medicated after coming out of a post-surgical coma and that he was an alcoholic who had also been drinking at the time.
“He is a man in poor health,” he said.
Sheriff Cruickshank noted the “potent mix” of chemicals used in the improvised incendiary device.
‘Quite rightly the occupants were concerned and terrified’
He told Bruce: “You claim you have no recollection of the incident and you have no explanation to provide as to why you decided to terrorise neighbours not known to you.
“It is instructive to note police attended in the early hours of the morning, for what reason I am not told, but you did have interaction with them at that time.
“Within minutes, you returned to the locus with what has been described as a bottle containing ethanol and white spirit – what has been historically known as a Molotov cocktail.
“Quite rightly the occupants were concerned and terrified.”
Noting that Bruce had already spent the equivalent of six months on remand in relation to the case, Sheriff Cruickshank jailed him for 26 months.
