Violent outburst in court leads to an extra four-month jail term

A police officer and G4S officer were injured after a scuffle in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

The disturbance was caused by Reece Knowles when he had a six-month custodial sentence imposed in June.

As a result of the offence, Knowles, 21, of Fraser Avenue, Inverkeithing, has now found himself back in the same dock and heading back to jail.

The courtroom had to be cleared when violence broke out in the summer but there was no repeat this time as Knowles headed back into custody.

He admitted that on June 14 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, acting in an aggressive manner, kicking the dock, causing the gate to lock, put his foot against the gate in an attempt to prevent the G4S officers from entering, struggled violently with police and G4S officers causing injury to a police constable and G4S officer.

Depute fiscal Jane Rennie said the incident occurred at around 12.20pm when Knowles received a custodial sentence from Sheriff Craig Mcsherry.

A female police constable stepped into the dock waiting for a G4S officer to come up from the cell area to take Knowles down.

A struggle began as Knowles closed the gate to the cells and the police officer took hold of his arm.

When the custody officer tried to put handcuffs on Knowles he began struggling violently and the police officer ended up sitting in the dock with the prisoner on her lap.

A G4S officer tried to take hold of Knowles’ head but was injured as the prisoner thrust his head around violently.

The police officer suffered bruising and swelling to her knee and the G4S officer required hospital treatment for an injury to his chest which was painful for a few weeks, added the depute fiscal.

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said: “It was a short-lived and sudden reaction to his first custodial sentence which came as something of a surprise to Mr Knowles.”

Sheriff Charles Macnair jailed Knowles for four months.