‘Staring’ man high on LSD drug walked into couple’s kitchen

A “wide-eyed” drug addict who walked unannounced into the home of an Angus alzheimer’s sufferer and his terminally-ill wife to demand a glass of water has been jailed for four months.

The frail couple’s daughter was faced with “staring” Steven Hartley as she washed dishes in their Carnoustie cottage one evening last May, just hours after the 28-year-old had been granted bail at Forfar Sheriff Court.

Hartley, of North Bank Street, Monifieth, appeared from custody for sentencing at Forfar, having 10 days earlier received a two-year prison term at Dundee for supplying drugs and being in possession of CS spray.

Depute fiscal Jill Drummond said the Angus incident happened around 8.30pm when the couple’s daughter was staying with her parents to look after them, and she had left the house door open in anticipation of a carer arriving around that time.

“The witness heard the front door opening and thought it was the carer, but he (Hartley) sat down on a kitchen stool,” said Ms Drummond.

The carer then arrived at the house and at first assumed Hartley was known to the woman because he was sitting in the kitchen. He was described as “wide-eyed and staring”.

Police were contacted and Hartley was arrested.

Defence solicitor Nick Markowski said: “He had gone to the address intoxicated, under the influence of an LSD-type drug. He has very little recollection of it and can give no explanation for his behaviour.”

Sheriff Robert Dickson ordered the four-month term to be a consecutive term,