Nine months for “disgusting” behaviour
A LERWICK woman with a “chronic alcohol problem” has been jailed for nine months for a string of drink-fuelled offences.
On Wednesday Lerwick Sheriff Court heard that Sarah Patterson, of 28 Hoofields, had indulged in “quite disgusting and frightening behaviour”.
Patterson had been refused bail and spent the festive season behind bars after previously admitted behaving in an abusive manner by making threats and brandishing a knife at Lerwick’s Esplanade on 17 December.
In front of two young boys, she threatened to kill herself by jumping into Lerwick harbour and then brought out a knife and threatened to cut her own wrists.
In a new complaint, Patterson admitted shouting at an 11 year old girl and making threats on 23 October at Sound service station on Lerwick’s South Road.
The woman was drunk at the time and left the child in tears.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client’s period in custody over Christmas had, quite literally, a “sobering effect” on her.
Patterson said from the dock that she is now off the drink for the first time in six months.
Sheriff Philip Mann said the woman’s problems were “chronic” and while he had sympathy with her “illness”, the public had to be protected.
Patterson sobbed as the sheriff handed down a four month prison sentence for the Esplanade offence.
He jailed her for another four months for breaching a community payback order imposed in October for a series of charges that included threatening staff at Lerwick’s Gilbert Bain Hospital.
He added an extra one month in prison for the Sound service station offence.
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