A man who walked into a police station and told officers he wanted to kill someone has been handed a supervision order.
Robert Dummet attended the office on Perth’s Barrack Street just days before Christmas but was not taken seriously.
However when officers followed him into the car park to check on his well-being, he became abusive and was subsequently arrested.
Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson called the case “peculiar”.
Solicitor Rosie Scott, representing Dummet, said he had been drinking and had begun to feel unwell prior to the incident.
She added that strong medication used by Dummet, 55, to control pain had mixed with the alcohol.
She said officers implied that he was attempting to get arrested in a bid to find accommodation for the night.
Dummet, of West High Street, Crieff, had earlier admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner by repeatedly shouting, swearing and uttering threats to kill someone at Perth police station on December 22, and by shouting at swearing at Sergeant Samantha Harlow-McGinnes on the same date.
Sheriff William Wood told Dummet: “For a man with very little in the way of convictions this is an unusual set of circumstances to find yourself in.
“You need help and support to avoid getting yourself into this position in the future.”
He made him the subject of an 18-month supervision order, with a review to take place in February.