The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Man who threatened to kill police faces jail
COURT: Armed officers called when woman was taunted with a knife at her flat
A man who instigated the savage, homophobic killing of a Perth council worker has been remanded after threatening to murder police and blow up a flat. Armed police officers, trained negotiators and firefighters had been summoned after Alexander Kindred began waving a knife at a woman in her Alyth flat. The pair had met on the dating app, Tinder but their night took a sinister turn when he started boasting to her of his past crimes. As a 15-year-old in 2007, he was detained for just one year for his involvement in the death of council worker James Kerr who was beaten to death on Perth’s South Inch by his friends. After the woman’s frantic sister called to warn her she had learned of his background, police were contacted. Kindred, 26, locked himself in the flat and threatened to shoot police with a shotgun and a crossbow that he claimed he had. He said he would set fire to himself and blow up the flat, sparking a full-scale emergency response. Appearing in court yesterday, he was remanded pending sentence and told he could be jailed.
A man once involved in the homophobic killing of a Perth council worker has been told he faces a custodial sentence after threatening to blow up a flat, set himself on fire and kill police officers. Perth Sheriff Court heard armed officers, police negotiators and firefighters arrived en masse at a flat in Alyth after Alexander Kindred started waving a knife at a woman and boasting about his past crimes. The court was told Kindred had travelled from Perth to meet the woman for a drink in the town earlier that evening after they connected through the dating app Tinder. Depute-fiscal Carol Whyte said: “The accused and the woman left the pub at 11pm and Kindred told her he had once killed a man.” She added: “The woman told him she couldn’t help him deal with that.” The court heard how the pair were at the woman’s flat when Kindred appeared with a knife and began The accused told police he would blow up the flat and set himself on fire if officers tried to come in. DEPUTE-FISCAL CAROL WHYTE brandishing it, telling the woman, “You don’t know what I’m capable of.” “The woman managed to persuade the accused to put the knife back in the knife block in the kitchen but told him she didn’t want to see him again.” The depute-fiscal added: “She told him she had to go to the toilet, and managed to flee from the flat.” The court heard how police were contacted and arrived just before 1am, and Kindred told them he would kill them as he had a shotgun and crossbow. “The accused told police he would blow up the flat and set himself on fire if officers tried to come in,” Mrs Whyte said. “He told the police, ‘I’m going to take three of you out. I am a taxpaying citizen – I will take you out.” Armed officers arrived with a police negotiator and firefighters. Kindred could be heard smashing things up in the flat but they eventually persuaded him to give himself up. Kindred, whose address was given as Perth Prison, admitted that between April 13 and 14 at an address in Alyth, he brandished a knife, uttered threats of violence, threw household items around the flat causing damage, threatened to blow up the building and set himself on fire and repeatedly told police that he would kill them. Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence until August 13 for background reports and he was remanded in custody. The sheriff said: “Custody is at the forefront of my mind.”