Man jailed after sparking Fort William armed seige
A SHERIFF jailed a man for 18 months last week for sparking an armed siege days after the Manchester Arena terrorist atrocity.
On Wednesday December 6, Inverness Sheriff Court heard Czechoslovakian national Michael Kucera had already been arrested for stealing a 30ft sailing vessel from moorings in Fort William, then consuming a bottle of rum before running it aground and refusing to be rescued.
After the west coast drama at sea, Kucera was treated in hospital for mental health issues before returning to Fort William and walking into the local library wearing a rucksack, holding a replica gun and terrifying staff. At an earlier hearing at Inverness Sheriff Court, Kucera admitted theft by shipbreaking, culpable and reckless conduct, possessing offensive weapons and behaving in a threatening manner.
Fiscal depute Michelle Molley told Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood the alarm was raised on March 29 when a witness saw a distress flare being set off from the vessel. Coastguard and the Oban lifeboat crew raced to the scene but Kucera had already started the engine and sailed off down Loch Linnhe.
The court heard he was naked, apart from a waterproof jacket. He later ran the boat aground near Lochaber Yacht Club and tried to push it back into deeper water himself. Kucera refused to be rescued from the icy waters by the coastguard and made his own way ashore where he was arrested by police.
A doctor examined him and it was decided he needed psychiatric help. But the court was told that the day after his release from New Craigs Hospital in Inverness, on May 25, Kucera returned to Fort William.
He walked down the High Street brandishing what appeared to be a semi-automatic pistol and entered the local library where terrified staff locked themselves in.
He had placed the gun, which turned out to be a replica BB gun, on the counter and when asked if it was real, he told an employee: ‘What do you think?’
Kucera remained in the building for around half an hour before armed police surrounded the library.
When 26-year-old Kucera emerged from the front door, he was bundled to the ground and his rucksack cut from his back and taken away a safe distance in case it contained explosives.
Ms Molley added: ‘A firearms officer said: ‘It was realistically styled and to someone inexperienced in firearms or observing it from a distance, it could have appeared a genuine and viable firearm.’
The firearms officer added: ‘Had it been pointed at me from a distance, I may have been forced to take decisive action.’
Police also found a knife and lighter fuel in the backpack. Kucera later claimed to police he knew how to make 'napalm' from the liquid.
Kucera, who was living rough in the area, has been on remand since the incident. His sentence was backdated to May 29.
His solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said: ‘Given what occurred elsewhere in the UK a few days earlier, he is acutely embarrassed. He has come to realise the enormity of how his behaviour was perceived that day and he apologises. It had an air of stupidity, idiocy and was infantile.’