A man told an Angus sheriff: “You’ll not be seeing me again,” after he was jailed for a year yesterday.
James William Tough, 25, whose address was given as Perth Prison, is back behind bars, despite a lengthy and impassioned plea for his liberty from solicitor Billy Rennie following a “positive report”.
Tough, who appeared from custody at Arbroath Sheriff Court, previously pleaded guilty to assault and possession of scissors during an incident on May 5 this year in the town’s Grant Road.
Sentence had been deferred for the preparation of reports and Mr Rennie urged Sheriff Peter Paterson to impose a community-based disposal as opposed to custody following its positive nature.
He said there had been a “significant change” in Tough since he got together with his girlfriend.
Mr Rennie said Tough was becoming comfortable with a lifestyle of being in and out of jail but then he had met his partner.
He said: “Unfortunately, this offence disrupted his plans to get married but there is now considerable support available to him.
“He wants to avoid jail because of the effect it would have on his partner. A community-based disposal would allow him to make a complete break from a cycle of reoffending.
“After leaving jail, it was almost a year before he found himself back in trouble and that was down to the positive impact of his partner and he’s keen to continue with his efforts to make a change.”
The complainers in the case had been in the town for a night out and were making their way back from Pie Bob’s when they were confronted by Tough, who was walking his dog at around 3am.
Tough asked the two witnesses if they had any “rollies”. They said they did not and he said he would walk up to Pie Bob’s to see if anyone there had any.
He referred to the people at Pie Bob’s as “dafties” or “idiots”. One of the witnesses said there were no “dafties” there and the accused became extremely argumentative and aggressive making out that he had been called a “dafty”.
The witnesses assured him that no-one had called him anything but he swung his arm around the witness and punched him once on the face, causing him to stumble backwards.
He then lifted his top at which time witnesses saw what appeared to be scissors tucked into the waistband of his trousers.
His aggression continued and he asked if the witnesses knew who he was before saying: “I’m James Tough.”
He also said he had just been released from prison after eight years and that he would “do it again”.
Police were attending an incident nearby while this was going on and heard someone shout “blade” when they arrived.
Tough was traced but was not arrested at the time as no scissors were found, the witnesses had gone and the description they had been given of the accused was sketchy.
Officers continued their investigations, using CCTV footage, and later traced Tough at his home address at about 5am, where he was arrested.
Sheriff Paterson said he could see from the social work report that things were now more positive than his record previously indicated.
However, the sheriff said society and the Scottish Government take a dim view of such offences and “a custodial sentence is inevitable”.
He backdated the one-year jail term to May 7.
Tough thanked him and told him: “You’ll not be seeing me again.”