A fuming Dundee resident turned on his neighbours after they stopped him setting a fire in a communal garden on Hogmanay.
A couple’s build-up to 2025 was plagued by Andrew Wainman, who reacted furiously to fire crews being summoned to extinguish the blaze he started outside the block on Buttars Place.
Wainman later unleashed a vitriolic tirade at police, including making threats against their children.
Hogmanay hell
Wainman was spotted at around 9pm setting light to wood in the rear garden, with the fire taking hold “immediately” because of the windy conditions, Dundee Sheriff Court was told.
A fire crew put out the blaze and Wainman confronted his neighbours, calling them “grasses” and “snitches”.
He said: “You are dirty rats. My sons will come and get you.
“I’ll f*****g kill you. You have until January 6 or I’ll come for you.”
Police came at around 12.20am and saw him run into another flat.
Fiscal depute Lissie Cook said: “Police were afforded entry and the accused was found hiding on the floor in one of the bedrooms.
“He was cautioned and arrested but made no coherent reply.”
Rats and maggots
Wainman erupted again while at the force’s West Bell Street headquarters.
He was described as “foaming at the mouth” and called officers “rats” and “maggots”.
He told police they would “face his fury” if they attempted to remove his necklace and said their “children would die”.
He was continually abusive throughout his time in the cells, jumping on the toilet and throwing items around.
Wainman, now of the Salvation Army Hostel on Ward Road, previously pled guilty to behaving abusively and threatening violence towards his neighbours and abusing police officers between December 31 2024 and January 1 this year.
Welfare calls
The 56-year-old, according to solicitor Alexandra Short, had been mixing anti-depressant medication with alcohol on the night in question and bad blood had been brewing between the neighbours.
Agitated Wainman interrupted court proceedings to tell Sheriff John Rafferty how 15 welfare calls had been made to police before the incident.
“He feels very upset about the whole thing,” Ms Short said.
“He accepts he should have never acted in this way.”
Wainman was fined a total of £240 and made subject to 10 months of social work supervision.
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