Neighbours and shop staff ‘terrified’ after scissor and knife incidents

A WOMAN left neighbours and shop staff “terrified” in two separate incidents.

Paige Connell showed up at her neighbour’s door around 3am shouting racist abuse and holding a knife.

In a second incident she threw scissors at staff who refused to serve her booze. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how, on February 27, Connell went round banging doors in her close and, at one door, she was heard to shout “let me in, foreign b ******* ”.

The resident of the property was born in Latvia and took this to be a racist statement.

Looking through the peephole of her front door, she saw Connell standing there holding a small bladed pocket knife with the blade open.

Another witness looked through their front door due to hearing banging, shouting and swearing and also saw her holding a knife. They did not open the door as a result.

Witness Elizabeth Miller heard shouting and banging too and heard Connell, from Pollok, shout “rat b ****** ”.

The neighbour opened the door and asked the 29-year-old to quiet down as she had children sleeping in her flat.

Ms Miller believed Connell to be drunk and did not see the knife at this time. At 11am on the same day, the witness contacted the police to report the matter.

Ms Miller and another neighbour, Edgar Levicks, both saw a small bladed knife sitting on a table in the common close with the blade open.

Police who attended both saw a knife sitting there too.

In a separate charge, on April 6, Mohammed Ayub was working at a shop on Drive Road in Linthouse when Connell came in. He and a colleague noted her to be “substantially” under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

She approached Mr Ayub, 47, to be served but he declined due to her level of intoxication and she became immediately aggressive.

Connell then turned her attention to Mr Iqbal, 69, and asked him to serve her but he declined and so she became aggressive to them both.

She shouted: “I will f ****** smash youse. I’m going to burn this f ****** store down.”

The two staff members were placed in a state of fear and alarm, depute fiscal Josh Dowie told the court, and both stayed behind the counter.

Sheriff Amel Elfallah said: “You are very lucky I am not sending you to custody today.”

Connell was placed on a structured deferred sentence. She will appear before the court again in three months.