A former police officer hurled abuse at his neighbour and threatened her brother while brandishing a knife, a court has heard.
Donald Bain shouted that his neighbour was a “c***” and a “w****” leaving her so scared that she called her brother to her home.
But when the relative arrived, Bain made threats to shoot him and later emerged from his house brandishing a knife.
Bain, 72, stood trial at Inverness Sheriff Court over the incident that took place in Birchwood Road, Inverness, on August 5 last year.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh, Bain’s 57-year-old neighbour Kathleen MacKinnon told the court she was at home when she heard “the shouting start from next door”.
She said: “I phoned my brother because I was scared. He was calling me a c*** and a w****. He was shouting out of the back door as well.”
Ms MacKinnon’s brother Ewan abandoned the dinner he was just sitting down to and rushed to her house with his two sons.
Mr MacKinnon, 54, told the court that when he arrived at his sister’s home “there was still noise coming through the wall” of the semi-detached property.
He said: “My sister was very upset.”
Neighbour had ‘a look of venom’
After sitting with her for a while, Mr MacKinnon said he approached the rear of Bain’s property, in an attempt to discuss the situation with him, but the older man started “shouting and swearing” with a “look of venom” on his face.
Mr MacKinnon told the court: “He said: ‘Look at you, you’re nothing but a c***,’ he called me a c*** several times. He was pointing at me through the window and threatened to shoot me twice. I thought ‘this is pointless’ and I went back in the house.”
It was after this that Bain was spotted at the front of the property.
“He was coming towards the front tyres of my pickup with a knife, it looked like he was going towards it to slash the tyres,” Mr MacKinnon told Sheriff David Harvie.
The family emerged from the property and told Bain to get away from the vehicle before calling the police.
As Bain retreated towards his own home, the siblings watched him brandishing the knife.
“He had the knife by his side, up and down, he was pointing it to us,” Mr MacKinnon said, adding: “I was feeling threatened and I feared for the safety of my family.”
Ms MacKinnon told the court she was “just shocked” when she saw Bain who was “flicking the knife back and forth”
She said: “What was he doing with a knife in my garden?”
Knife-wielding neighbour was ‘ranting and raving’
A police officer called to the scene said Bain was “ranting and raving” when he arrived and appeared “very agitated and aggressive”, though he later calmed down.
The constable confirmed that a knife was recovered from the front step outside Bain’s property.
Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Bain told the court that he was a former police officer with Fife Constabulary.
He claimed that the incident had started with “hammering and banging” at his front door, which he answered.
He said things then “went downhill” until he was arrested.
He denied playing loud music, shouting threats and unpleasantries.
‘This is quite a serious incident’
Asked about the knife recovered from outside his front door, Bain said: “Not mine”.
He said: “I believe it was deliberately planted,” and added: “I’ve never carried a knife, never felt the need to, never will.”
He attributed the incident to “an ongoing situation”.
But Sheriff David Harvie told Bain that he believed his story of the knife being planted was “nothing more than that – a story”.
Finding Bain guilty of threatening or abusive behaviour by shouting, swearing, acting in an aggressive manner and uttering threats towards his neighbour’s brother whilst brandishing a knife, Sheriff Harvie said: “This is quite a serious incident.”
Calling for a pre-sentencing report he told Bain, of Birchwood Road, Inverness: “Be aware that all options remain open.”
The sheriff continued consideration of Crown motions for the forfeiture of the knife and the imposition of a non-harassment order preventing Bain from approaching or contacting the woman.
The case will call again next month.
