News / 56 year old denies making assault threat
A MAN who denies threatening to assault a night porter at a local youth hostel has been kept behind bars after appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
Christopher Robinson, 56, who gave the court an address in Fife, appeared from custody on Tuesday.
He is charged with behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by telling two women that he was going to assault the night porter at Islesburgh Youth Hostel in Lerwick with a rock on 14 August.
Robinson was already facing a charge of possessing a lock knife without reasonable excuse or lawful authority at Saxa Vord, Unst on 13 August. He is also pleading not guilty to that charge.
Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said Robinson’s conduct in the cells had been poor and warned that, if granted bail, he would simply reoffend again.
Sheriff Mann told Robinson, who chose to represent himself and described the charges as “bollocks”, that he had disrespected the court.
He was remanded in custody with a trial date set for 17 September, and was taken away claiming: “I’ve been stitched up”.
Meanwhile a 21 year old who breached his bail conditions by going to his former partner’s house in the early hours of the morning has been jailed for 13 weeks.
Trevor Couper, of Cairnfield Road, Lerwick, was granted bail on 21 July in connection with an assault charge with two special conditions attached, one of which was not to contact the woman.
The court heard on Tuesday that Couper had entered the woman’s Sandveien address at 3am on 16 August while she was asleep in bed.
The fiscal said Couper had given the woman a shock when he showed up in her bedroom, and described it as a “straightforward, wilful breach”.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client made a “full and frank admission” when contacted by police.
The woman had texted Couper a few hours earlier telling him to come and collecting his belongings from the house, but Allan acknowledged his client should have realised this would contravene his bail conditions.
Couper, he said, knew it was “crystal clear” that he could no longer have anything to do with the woman, but he was finding that hard to come to terms with their five-year relationship being over.
Sheriff Mann said Couper had shown “great disrespect” to the court, and had “risked a serious disturbance” by visiting the woman.
Couper’s sentence was reduced from 20 weeks to 13 weeks to reflect his guilty plea.
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