An Aberdeen man has narrowly avoided going to prison after his neighbour answered her front door to find him standing there holding a knife.
Jason Findlay, 53, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted being found by police in possession of a blade.
When the police arrived on the scene, they found Findlay still in the communal hallway but with the knife now broken into two pieces.
Upon being arrested and taken to a police station in Aberdeen, Findlay then kicked a police officer to the body.
His solicitor told the court his client had been drinking around a bottle of vodka a day at the time.
Woman heard knock at her door
Fiscal depute Georgia Laird told the court that at around 11.25am on August 24 last year, a woman who lived within the Cornhill Court high-rise on Briarfield Terrace, Aberdeen, was in her home when she heard a knock on the door.
She answered it to find Findlay standing there with a knife gripped in his hands.
Slamming the door shut, the woman immediately called the police who attended at the block of flats.
Officers found Findlay in the communal landing of the building and found the knife in two parts near his feet.
Ms Laird also told the court that at around 12.55pm the same day, officers were booking Findlay into Kittybrewster Police Station he swung out with his foot and kicked a constable to his leg.
In the dock, Findlay pleaded guilty to one charge of having the knife.
He also admitted a second charge of assault on a police officer.
Sheriff: Courts concern is public safety
Defence solicitor Mike Monro told the court that it was “difficult to say much in mitigation” about his client’s offences because he has “very little recollection of what happened”.
“But it is easy for me to say now that he apologises,” Mr Monro said.
“Mr Findlay has been subjected to a significant brain trauma and this is exacerbated when he consumes alcohol – and he was drinking up to a bottle a day.
“He is now working hard on these matters.”
Sheriff Peter Grant-Hutchison informed Mr Monro that the court’s main concern was “the safety of the public” and speculated that perhaps the best way to achieve that was through the imposition of a custodial sentence.
“My hope is that my client has come to the proverbial door of custody without going through it,” Mr Monro replied.
Sentencing Findlay, Sheriff Grant-Hutchison told him: “You will have gathered that my first reaction to these charges was that it was calling out for a period of imprisonment.
“However, your lawyer has been quite persuasive in suggesting that I should impose a community order.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Grant-Hutchison made Findlay, of Cornhill Court, subject to a community payback order with supervision for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff also ordered Findlay to take part in an alcohol and drug misuse programme.
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