An offender said he smashed his way into a Dunfermline courthouse with a mallet due to his frustration with the justice system.
Boguslaw Lach broke windows and glass panels during his rampage at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on the afternoon of May 8 last year.
At the same court this week, Sheriff Susan Duff said the initial cost of repair was £2,000 and Lach’s conduct had caused “distress and trauma”.
One police officer had described the hammer blows on the glass as sounding like “gunshots”.
A witness told The Courier at the time she saw Lach smashing the entrance door glass panels and “bolted” into one of the courtrooms, the main doors to which were then locked.
About four months later, Lach was caught by police carrying a knife in one of his boots in Inchkeith Court, Dunfermline.
He appeared for sentencing this week by video link to prison after earlier pleading guilty to a breach of the peace at the court building and to having the offensive weapon.
The appearance came on Wednesday, the day before someone set fire to the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court building.
Wrecking spree
Prosecutor Matthew Knapp told the court Lach used a metal mallet to smash an office window to the left of the court building’s main entrance doors at around 12.20pm on May 8 last year.
The fiscal depute said: “A police constable has been seated directly behind that window.
“The constable thought the strikes of the hammer were akin to gunshots, such was the ferocity of the strike against the glass”.
Lach went on to shatter glass panes in the court building’s main entrance doors and internal doors to the reception area.
A court police officer made his way from courtroom three to see Lach holding the mallet.
Officers activated emergency buttons on their radio devices to summon more police, who arrived two minutes later and Lach was restrained and arrested.
‘Frustrated’
Defence lawyer Shona Westwood said: “He advised me he felt quite frustrated at the justice system.
“He has obviously appeared several times in court for various matters and feels he is being punished for various things and when things happen to him, perpetrators were not being punished.”
Ms Westwood said Lach told police people were smashing windows at his flat but “nothing” has been done and he is “very frustrated with the justice system”.
The solicitor said: “However, I think he recognises his own actions were wrong.”
Knife offence
At around 5.15pm on September 12 last year a man was playing with his children at a communal car park in Inchkeith Drive when he saw Lach, who appeared under the influence.
He then spotted him, with a knife, speaking to a male through a flat window.
Police, who happened to be in the street at the time, were made aware and handcuffed him.
No knife was visible at this point and while Lach said he was in possession of an item, he would not disclose what or where it was.
The knife was found in the accused’s left boot.
Ms Westwood said Lach had been getting re-established on medication after being released from a period of remand and was concerned about threat.
The court heard previously that Lach has been subject to various hospital admissions and has been on a community compulsion order since 2016.
Sheriff Duff jailed Lach for a total of 18 months, backdated to September 13 last year.
Kirkcaldy court fire
The main court building in Kirkcaldy was closed on Thursday after a fire caused visible damage to the front entrance.
Police said they are investigating the apparently deliberately-started blaze.
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