A knife-wielding crack addict who terrorised staff at a Dundee mental health centre has been jailed and could remain behind bars for life.
Mark Law, 44, went to the Alloway Centre in 2021 “to kill people” and threw a knife through a hatch, which lodged in a mousepad at a staff member’s desk.
He fled but his DNA was found on the blade.
Two months after his March 25 tirade, he terrified another woman.
He was found raking through his victim’s bins in High Street, Monifieth on May 25.
He grabbed her shouted “I’ll stab f*** out you” after she started filming him on her mobile phone.
Habitual offender Law pled guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court to threatening and abusive behaviour and possessing and brandishing a weapon.
In December 2021, his case was remitted to the High Court for sentence, where punishments can be more severe, due to the potential risk he poses to the public.
Chilling threats
Law has been in custody since June 2021.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Arthurson sentenced him to an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR), meaning he will only be released when the parole board deems him no longer to be a threat.
The punishment portion of the sentence was set at three years.
At present, he is said to be a high risk.
Lord Arthurson said: “The author of the risk assessment report and its multiple appendices has, in summary, concluded that you appear to have a capacity to seriously endanger the lives and the physical or psychological well-being of the public at large and that the risk presented by you is high.
“I further note that in the view of the author of the risk assessment report you must be considered as presenting a high risk of perpetrating physical violence with a weapon.”
He said when told of the OLR recommendation by the report’s author, Law responded “in a calm and measured manner, making threats of very serious violence.”
He made remarks such as and including that he would “take life and take my own life”, “there would be lots of blood”, “an OLR will bring death” and “if I get an OLR, I will dedicate my life to murder.”
He “referred to a particular type of bladed weapon and stated he ‘could confidently kill’.”
As recently as September in a further meeting, he made threats to members of the judiciary and a community psychiatric nurse.
Intention to kill
The judge said: “You purchased a knife and made your way to the Alloway Centre, a large complex specialising in the mental health treatment of the public, where you yourself had received treatment in the past.
“You did so, on your own account, with the intent to attack and kill staff within.
“You were intoxicated with crack cocaine at the time of this offending.
“You entered the toilet at the Alloway Centre and made stabbing motions in the mirror in order to motivate yourself to be able to cause harm.
“While shouting apparently abusive remarks, you leaned through an open hatch and lashed around the reception area with the knife before throwing it in the direction of two female staff members.
“The knife lodged in the mousepad of one of these staff members as she sat at her desk.”
He noted Law had previously written to his GP of his desire to kill people.
May never be freed
Lord Arthurson concluded: “You will not be eligible to apply for parole until the punishment part has been concluded and you must not assume that you will automatically be released at that time.
“You will be released only when the parole board determines that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you should continue to be confined in prison.
“When you are released – if indeed you are ever released at all – is in law a matter for the parole board.”
