A furious Perth tenant brandished a meat cleaver at his upstairs neighbour in a row over loud music.
Dinesh Rai lost his temper when he was interrupted by tunes while preparing his dinner.
He bolted upstairs and threatened his neighbours while grasping the cleaver.
The 50-year-old appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, at the city’s Pomarium Street flats on December 3, last year.
He shouted, swore and acted aggressively towards resident Aneta Bauman and Dawid Modrzewski.
Nepalese national Rai also pled guilty to having an offensive weapon in a public place.
Sheriff Francis Gill told him: “The concern for the court has been the extreme behaviour you showed in response to noise coming from a neighbouring property.
“Whatever the issue was between you and your neighbours, you should not have dealt with the situation in the way that you did.”
The sheriff said: “I take into account your limited record and I am prepared to deal with this by way of a financial penalty.”
Rai was fined £560.
Upset by loud music
When he was arrested, Rai told police: “They are always making noise.”
“That sums things up in a nutshell,” said solicitor Linda Clark, defending.
“This was an incident which arose following a sequence of events where there was constant noise emanating from the upstairs property.
“This was having an impact on Mr Rai.
“He was unable to sleep and that led to difficulties getting up in time for his work.”
Ms Clark told the court: “On this day, Mr Rai was cooking his evening meal when loud music began playing above him.
“He got upset and went to their door, with the meat cleaver still in his hand.”
Court boycott
The court heard Rai spent a night in the cells after his arrest in December last year.
He appeared in court the next day and was released on bail, on condition he did not approach or contact his upstairs neighbours.
“This was one of the boycotted courts,” said Ms Clark, referring to a solicitors’ protest over a legal aid funding row.
“He wasn’t represented and there was no interpreter.
“There was absolutely no prospect that he would have understood the bail conditions.
“So it is perhaps a measure of his character that, even though his bail conditions would have been unclear, he has not been in any further remonstrations with the neighbours.”
