Virus threat louts are sentenced to jail
uninvited at a stranger’s home in Banavie Road around 11.45pm on April 9.
He was asked to leave and given £5 for a taxi.
Muldoon lifted a phone and put it in his pocket, but returned it when the householder noticed it was missing.
He then went to a nearby house, where he was known, and asked the occupants to phone a taxi.
Muldoon then produced two lock knives with blades visible, causing the householders to back off.
Ms Beattie told the court: “He appeared to be heavily under the influence of alcohol or another substance.
“He went into the living room. The police were contacted and when officers arrived he was still in the living room.”
Muldoon was taken to Motherwell Police Station.
He said he had Covid-19 and officers dealing with him had to wear masks.
The fiscal added: “He coughed directly in the face of a police witness.
“He was told that if he needed to cough he should turn his head away, but proceeded to do the same thing again.”
Defence agent Tom Watters said Muldoon had taken alcohol and drugs, and “has no recollection of his behaviour”.
Mr Watters stated: “He wasn’t threatening anyone with the knives and seemed only to be displaying them to the occupants for some bizarre reason.
“But he accepts those people would have been intimidated and upset.
“As for his coughing, police officers had radioed ahead to let colleagues at the station know my client was claiming to have Covid-19.
“When he arrived they were wearing masks so any risk would have been minimal.”
The court heard that none of the officers involved in the incidents had displayed Covid-19 symptoms subsequently.
But Sheriff Douglas Brown said: “There is considerable public concern about Covid-19 and police are particularly vulnerable when involved in incidents.
“The court has to impose sentences that deter this sort of activity.”
Muldoon also got 12 months for carrying the knives, theft of the phone and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner. That was added to his eight-month sentence.