Yob flashes knife at terrified grandparents

Man is caged for 13-month crimewave

A teenage thug who branded his grandmother “a w **** ” and pulled out a knife at her home in a drunken rampage has been jailed.

James Cumming also phoned police and falsely reported a murder – then laughed at the officers who raced to the scene.

The details emerged yesterday when Cumming appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court to be sentenced over 11 charges relating to his 13-month crimewave.

The court heard he committed the offence towards Cathleen and Brian Cumming at their home in Ayrshire in September 2019.

Prosecutor Rosalind Walsh explained: “They were alerted to a chap at their front door.

“Brian Cumming made his way to the front door and was met by the accused who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

“The accused was let into the property and began to shout at Cathleen Cumming, stating she was ‘a w **** ’.

“He then entered the kitchen area and picked up a knife and was shouting at them. Brian Cumming took the knife from the accused.”

Cumming continued to shout and swear, accusing his grandfather of being drunk and then left the property.

Police were contacted and he was tracked down the following month and charged.

The court heard he wasted police time by falsely claiming to have witnessed a murder.

Miss Walsh explained: “Police received a call from the accused stating a male arrived at the locus with a knife.

“The accused stated he observed a machete and a male lying on the floor dead.

“Police were contacted to attend and on arrival they observed the accused standing in the street, he was not harmed or injured, and he was laughing at the police officers.

“He said he’d called the police as he wanted an ambulance. He said, ‘I had to exaggerate as no one was listening to me’.”

Cumming, 20, appeared in court yesterday via video link from prison, where he is serving a 35-week sentence for failing to comply with a community payback order imposed in another case.

The 11 cases he was due to be sentenced over included a number of shoplifting and theft charges, breaking bail conditions, and public order offences.

After hearing that he broke into a McColl’s store in Ayr last summer, with an accomplice, and stole various items, Sheriff Mungo Bovey QC jailed him for seven months for that offence.

He admonished him on one charge of breaking bail conditions and deferred sentence on the nine other cases, including the ones involving his grandparents and wasting police time, until later this year.