Jail terms for separate knife and assault crimes
A THIRTY three year old man who was under the influence of “legal highs” while possessing a knife in Lerwick town centre in February has been jailed for a year.
George Hogg, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, admitted possessing the blade without reasonable excuse or lawful authority when he appeared from custody at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Hogg’s behaviour in a shop on the town’s Commercial Street on 17 February had been “extremely suspicious” – leaving staff and members of the public very concerned.
An off duty police officer concluded that Hogg was going to steal a charity collection box and noticed a six-and-a-half inch knife with a two-and-a-half inch blade in his waistband belt, before calling police colleagues to assist.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Hogg, who is used to taking both legal and illegal substances, simply “didn’t know what was going on” having consumed so-called legal highs.
Indeed it took him a couple of days on remand before he was able to understand the situation.
He had no good explanation for having the knife, Allan said, but he is not someone who routinely carries a blade – though Sheriff Philip Mann pointed out that Hogg did have a prior conviction for knife possession.
Allan added his client was “fed up of himself” for continually winding up back in prison.
The sheriff said there was “really no excuse for having the knife in your possession” and sentenced him to one year in prison, reduced from 18 months to reflect his early plea of guilty.
Hogg has been in custody since the incident and his sentence will be backdated by six weeks.
MEANWHILE, a repeat offender who admitted committing assaults on two men and a woman in Tingwall on 17 January this year has been jailed for a total of six months.
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Owen Haughian, 32, of Hoofields, Lerwick, committed the offences at Herrislea Court and Herrislea Hill – pushing one man, striking another and punching, seizing and dragging a woman.
He also pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in a police vehicle on the way to Lerwick Police Station by screaming, shouting, swearing, repeatedly banging his head on the vehicle’s rear window and referring to a white police officer as a ‘Paki’.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client had been subject to a restriction of liberty order for quite a lengthy period.
But as soon as the curfew ended he began drinking and ended up behaving in an “insulting and bizarre” manner.
He said Haughian was “ashamed” of his behaviour whilst drinking, and that when he is sober he is a reliable worker.
Sheriff Mann said there were shades of “a sort of Jekyll and Hyde character” in Haughian’s behaviour.
“You’ve had fines, community payback orders, a restriction of liberty order… none of that appears to have got the message through to you,” the sheriff told him.
He jailed him for four months for the assaults and a further two months for his behaviour in the police vehicle.
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