Woman in court after online date turns to disaster

‘Drunk and agitated’ woman arrested by police after she threw ornament through prospective partner’s car window

An online date turned to disaster after a Fife woman became drunk, ranted inconsolably and then threw a concrete garden ornament through the window of her prospective partner’s car.

Louise Black met her man for the first time on Hogmanay after conversing on a dating website.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that Black and her partner initially hit it off until alcohol intervened and led to a breakdown at his home on the Balcarres Estate near Colinsburgh.

The 41-year-old had been offered a drink, but one swiftly became another and depute fiscal Alan Kempton noted Black had “quickly consumed quite a large quantity of alcohol”.

Mr Kempton said: “She soon began to speak of family troubles before becoming extremely emotional.

“She was shouting and swearing, and matters continued in this manner for much of the evening. The complainer described her as ‘ranting and raving’.”

When a telephone conversation with her mother failed to calm things, Black was eventually offered a bed for the night in the hope it would calm her.

Within half an hour, however, she had woken and kicked off again, before demanding a lift to a friend’s house in Leven.

When her date reminded her that he had himself had too much to drink she stormed from the house, stopping only to pick up a heavy concrete ornament from the doorstep and launch it through the window of his car, leaving him with a £1,000 repair bill.

Police officers traced her a short distance away, describing her as “drunk and agitated”.

Black, of Ben Lomond View, Oakley, Dunfermline, admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner and damaging a vehicle on December 31 last year.

Sheriff Lorna Drummond said Black’s actions had caused a “significant amount of damage” which she appeared to have no funds to pay for.

Sentence was deferred until August 19, with Black ordered to appear on that date.