Drunk jailed for scissors threat

Angry after fight at Crieff flat

A drunken Crieff man brandished two pairs of scissors at a woman.

And when 23-year-old Graham Paterson was asked to leave the house in the early hours he let fly with a tirade of abuse.

When the woman told him he was not going to stab her, he shouted back: “How do you know what I’m going to do?”

Perth Sheriff Court was told that she was frightened for her safety and the police were called.

The violent confrontation led to Paterson, of Commissioner Street, being jailed for six months.

He admitted that on August 27 at the house in Hebridean Gardens he shouted and swore and brandished the scissors in a threatening manner.

He had been put on bail just two weeks earlier.

Depute fiscal Tina Dickie said Paterson had been at the flat on the Friday evening consuming alcohol, along with others.

At one point he was left alone with another man and while they were outside having a cigarette an argument started, which ended in a fight.

When Paterson returned he continued to drink alcohol but became “extremely angry and agitated”.

Efforts were made to calm him down but he grabbed the scissors, holding a pair in each hand and pointing the blades towards the woman.

Solicitor Jamie Baxter said Paterson had been injured during the fight.

An ambulance had been called and he was taken to hospital for treatment.

“He was in an agitated and aggressive state,” he explained.

“He recalls having a fall- out with the woman but shouldn’t have used the scissors.

“His recollection of that incident is not great.”

Imposing the jail term, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Paterson: “You just can’t behave in this way.”