Man avoids jail after ‘appalling conduct’ towards police

A Campbeltown man has been given a community payback order as an alternative to custody.

Sheriff Patrick Hughes ordered 240 hours of unpaid work in the community within 12 months as punishment for Robert Graham, of 64 Ralston Road. He warned him: ‘If the work is not done, you will be brought back and sent to jail.’

The sheriff added: ‘This was a sustained course of appalling conduct, directed at police officers.’

At an earlier sitting of the court, Graham, aged 36, admitted being threatening and abusive on two separate occasions, on October 1 and November 14 last year, at locations in the town and at the town’s police station and while being transported in a police vehicle.

His actions included shouting, swearing, threatening officers and others with violence and making homophobic remarks to officers; refusing to stop when asked and struggling with one police officer, injuring him.

The sheriff had called for a criminal justice social work report to be prepared on Graham. He had been told the incidents happened after Graham had suffered bereavement.

Graham’s defence agent, Ruben Murdanaigum, said the man ‘regrets his actions’.

‘He submits himself to any decision of the court,’ he said, ‘He accepts that what he did was wrong.’