Another warrant for man who threatened to ‘wipe out’ airport

A second Scottish court has issued an arrest warrant for an on the run Angus carpenter who previously threatened to “wipe out” Glasgow airport in a Syrian rant in the wake of the 2015 Paris attacks.

Jonathon Gourley, of Canstmill Farm Cottage, Kirriemuir, had been due to appear at Forfar yesterday to be sentenced on a charge of having a folding knife in his possession at the Angus court on March 21 last year.

The offence was committed whilst the 43-year-old was on bail for a similar offence at Paisley Sheriff Court, where he also previously appeared in connection with the airport incident.

Canadian Gourley was sentenced to a Community Payback Order and unpaid work for the airport offence, after telling shocked staff he had spent two decades in the military and had just returned from the war-torn country.

He told easyJet staff he wanted to buy a plane ticket to Canada, but when advised he was too drunk to be sold a ticket, became aggressive and said to staff: “I could wipe you out, I’m very high up in the military.”

His airport threats came just days after the attack on the Eagles of Death Metal gig at the Bataclan in Paris in which 89 people died.

Gourley was made the subject of a warrant when he failed to appear in Paisley last month, and yesterday Sheriff Alison McKay issued a similar order from the Angus court.

Also at Forfar: Graham Hunter, 49, formerly of Kirriemuir Road, Forfar, was placed on a community payback order, including 40 hours of unpaid work, having previously admitted threatening his partner and her grown-up son during an incident in November last year.

The court heard the couple had been out in Forfar but made their way home separately, and an argument broke out.

Hunter picked up a knife and made threats, but his partner knocked the blade out of his hand and police were called.

Defence solicitor Brian Bell said: “Sentence was deferred and he has been of good behaviour for four months. They are still together.”