Former boxer jailed for terrifying ordeal

A former boxer punched a boarded-up window so hard that he needed an operation on his injured hand and was off work for two weeks.

Twenty-six-year-old Ryan Warden terrified the occupants of the house in Mill Street, Kinross, when he hurled a wheelie bin at it.

Neighbours heard him shouting and screaming. He kicked the door, saying: “I’m going to kill you,” Perth Sheriff Court was told.

Warden, of Bowton Road, Kinross, was jailed for six months after he admitted placing the occupants of the flat in a state of fear and alarm on September 2.

Jailing him, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “You can’t behave like this.

“We don’t have to put up with this nonsense.”

Depute fiscal Carol Wood said Mr Woods was watching TV in the house at about 1am when he became aware of the accused shouting loudly outside.

“At that time the windows were boarded up and the accused picked up a wheelie bin and began hitting the timber boarding.

“The accused punched it to such an extent that the boarding was dislodged.

“He then picked up the bin and tried to throw it through the gap where the board had been,” she added.

“Mr Woods contacted police and asked them to come straight away as he was frightened for his safety.”

Police were on the scene a few minutes later and Warden was later found asleep in his bed.

Solicitor David Holmes conceded the accused has a lengthy record but said he would benefit from counselling and assistance.

But Sheriff Foulis told him: “The background report prepared for today is not one which is glowing in its terms, saying: ‘Yes, this is a hiccup. Give this man a further chance.’

“The problem with the plea is that it’s all been said before and there’s no indication there’s actually any change.”

Warden, a former bantamweight boxer, was put on a community payback order in August after he threatened to bite a police officer’s neck and “rip out his jugular” during a catalogue of drink and drug-fuelled events in Kinross.

His progress on the 250-hour unpaid work order, which included alcohol counselling, is due to be reviewed on November 13.