Man is jailed again following breach of supervision order

A FORT WILLIAM man who served three years for assault has been sent back inside for two months for breaching his release order.

Derek Wilson McLean, 53, had been living in Southend- on- Sea in England in contravention of the nine-month supervision order imposed on his release from custody.

He had been jailed in November 2014 for assaulting a man with a poker, causing him serious injury to the danger of life. The man had been an acquaintance and the pair had been drunk at the time.

McLean had previously admitted the breach and appeared before Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald at Fort William on Monday. ‘He has not had his troubles to seek for a number of years,’ said his defence agent Steve Kennedy.

McLean, he said, had been ‘released onto the street and told to get on with it’ at the end of his sentence, without support, accommodation or money. At one stage he had been reduced to begging.

Having to deal with an alcohol problem and in poor quality homeless accommodation, he left Fort William and went to Southend.

‘He decided on December 23 last year, for his own good, to leave Fort William. There were people he wanted to get away from and make a new start and he knew people in Southend and decided to go there,’ said Mr Kennedy.

At first homeless, and begging, McLean found accommodation in a shelter run by a charity.

‘They are trying to help him get alternative accommodation and to get back on the straight and narrow,’ said Mr Kennedy.

Released in May last year, the nine-month order is now over. Sheriff MacDonald, who jailedMcLean for two months, said: ‘You were convicted of a very serious offence and a supervised release order is imposed for a reason.’

Mr Kennedy said that McLean would return to Southend on his release from custody.