Man sentenced after taking clothes off and assaulting staff

AN AYR man took off his clothes at the town’s hospital before assaulting staff, setting off the fire alarm and then frightening a teenage girl by making creepy comments and pulling down his trousers in a local shop.

Neville Blair was sentenced at the town’s sheriff court last week after pleading guilty to a catalogue of offences committed between February 2022 and March this year.

Blair, now 53, had previously admitted trying to headbutt a male charge nurse, trying to punch a clinical support worker on the head, shouting, swearing, taking off his clothes and activating the fire alarm at University Hospital Ayr on February 27 last year.

Blair, of Doonfoot Road, also pleaded guilty to shouting, swearing and striking a door at an address in the town’s Gearholm Road on September 11, and to kicking a police constable on the body in the same street on September 29 – the latter offence committed while he was subject to an undertaking to appear in court.

He admitted a second charge of breaching a court’s instructions by contacting two men named on a Crown complaint while the subject of a bail order granted on December 20.

Blair was later taken into custody by police after a further incident in the Day Today store on Doonfoot Road on March 5.

He admitted causing fear and alarm to a girl who was then aged 14 by standing in close proximity to her, asking her about social media and asking if she wanted to see pictures.

Blair also pleaded guilty to pulling down his trousers during the March incident.

Defence solicitor John Gallagher previously explained his client suffered from mental health problems and had racked up several court cases following the death of his mother after he moved to Scotland.

Blair was later released from custody and put on a community payback order.

However, at last week’s hearing, Sheriff Desmond Leslie revoked that order and instead imposed a “restriction of liberty order”, which will see Blair confined to his home address every night between 7pm and 7am for three months.