A Shetland man who entered a Lerwick house uninvited and threatened a woman sleeping on a living room sofa with a brick has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Matthew Smith, 29, of Stanegarth, Lerwick, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and behaving aggressively during incident on July 13 this year.
Fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the woman had been to a hen party with some friends and had been socialising at a house in the town’s Bruce Crescent until around 5am.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard that she awoke two hours later to find Smith’s hand on her cheek, holding a rock against her face, and to telling her not to say anything while demanding her mobile phone.
When the complainer asked why he was there, Smith replied: “It doesn’t matter, I’ll put this brick in your face”. He added: “I don’t want to hurt you, but if I can’t find ‘him’ I will”.
Mr Mackenzie said Smith was clearly under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was stumbling around.
The woman managed to trip him up and he fell onto a coffee table. Her friends heard the disturbance and got rid of Smith before calling the police.
While she was not physically hurt, the woman was left “very shaken indeed” by the episode.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said he could offer “nothing in mitigation” for Smith’s “atrocious” behaviour.
Sheriff Donald Ferguson said Smith should arguably go to jail for the “awful offence”, but he had shown “a different side” to himself in the past few months.
In addition to the unpaid work he was given a 12-month community payback order and will be required to continue with alcohol abuse counselling.
