A Fife man who vowed to kill his flatmate after returning home to find the locks changed has been jailed for four months.
David Taylor, 26, also threatened to “do in” a police officer at Levenmouth police station after he was detained following the incident in Methil’s Den Walk on June 11 2017.
Taylor, who now lives in St Andrews, admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards Callum Burns, struggling with police officers and uttering threats of violence towards them while on bail, when he appeared from custody at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
Depute fiscal Ronnie Hay said police were called to Den Walk shortly after 4amand found Mr Burns in a “state of anxiety”.
As Taylor was detained by officers, he said he was “going to murder” Mr Burns on his release from police custody, the depute added.
Taylor subsequently struggled violently with police as they took him to Levenmouth and again issued a chilling threat – this time to one of the officers.
“He said he would remember the custody care officer, find him and do him in,” the depute said.
Defence solicitor Douglas Williams said his client had been in supported accommodation in Methil at the time and he and Mr Burns had separate rooms in a flat in Den Walk.
“His purpose in securing this accommodation was to try and get some rhythm back in his life,” he said of Taylor.
As far as Taylor was concerned, Mr Williams added, the pair “got on okay” and had been watching football before Taylor went out.
“He came back to find, for some reason, the locks had been changed,” Mr Williams said.
“He was quite understandably pretty angered about that. He was banging on the door and his anger spilled over.
“Mr Burns had absolutely no reason to have excluded him from the property.”
Mr Williams added that it was his understanding it may have had something to do with “various items” Mr Burns found in his client’s room.
Sheriff Alastair Thornton sentenced Taylor to four months imprisonment for the offence.
“Your behaviour was utterly unacceptable,” he said.
“It’s bad enough making threats to Mr Burns, but the court does not tolerate such threats towards police officers trying to do their jobs.”
