Drunk man made rape threat

A drunken passenger, seen swigging from a bottle of Buckfast, threatened to rape a 33-year-old woman on a Perth-bound train.

The woman was so“shocked and mortified by the distasteful and threatening comments” that she complained to the conductor who contacted British Transport Police.

They were waiting for 45-year-old Steven Williamson when the service pulled into the station.

“He was identified, removed from the train and placed in handcuffs,”depute fiscal Bill Kermode told Perth Sheriff Court.

He was taken to police headquarters in Dundee but during the journey he subjected officers to a foul-mouthed tirade.

He screamed:“Who’s first to be murdered?”He then said: “I’m going to smash your skulls in”.

Williamson’s aggressive outburst led to him being jailed for four months.

He admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on the Inverness to Perth train on November 10 this year and within a police vehicle en route to West Bell Street in Dundee.

His behaviour was condemned by Sheriff Neil Bowie.

He told him:“This was disgusting conduct and, as your solicitor has rightly observed, it wasn’t just the young woman you spoke to like that but everybody else on the train was aware of it.”

The sheriff added:“It’s not the job of the police to take 45 minutes of abuse from you as you are transported from Perth to Dundee.”

The sheriff noted that Williamson was subject to two bail orders at the time, as well as supervision from Elgin Sheriff Court.

“The only appropriate disposal is a custodial one,”he stated.

Mr Kermode said the accused had attempted to engage the woman in conversation during the journey but she turned away and informed the guard who“discreetly”alerted the police.

Solicitor Paul Ralph said his client’s“only explanation”was that he had taken too much to drink.

He had expressed “appropriate remorse”to the social worker who had prepared a background report on him.

And he wished to repeat that to the court.

Williamson, of South Street, Elgin, had his jail term backdated to November 11, when he was first remanded.