Court / Woman sent to jail for making threats

A LERWICK woman has been sent to prison for six months following an incident where she made threats against her ex partner and was found in possession of a knife.

The town’s sheriff court heard on Wednesday that Claire Antonio had phoned psychiatric services on 1 March to say she was going to her ex partner’s house to collect her belongings and if he hindered her, she would stab him.

Antonio, 24, address given as Grampian Prison, later turned up at the house in Hoofields demanding entry but had the door barred to her by her ex who talked to her through a window. She threatened to smash a window but left after her ex threatened to call the police.

Ten minutes later she returned to the house making the same threats. When police arrived she threw the knife, which had a four-inch blade, down on the front door step.

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Antonio admitted the charges of threatening and abusive behaviour and possessing a knife in public, both aggravated by abuse of her ex partner. She had been in custody since appearing at the court on 4 March.

Tommy Allan, defending, said that he would repeat a plea he had made many times before, that Antonio was an intelligent and articulate woman with “great potential” who went off the rails under the influence of alcohol.

He said Antonio’s call to psychiatric services had been a “cry for help”. She had been in prison every day since then and “does not like it and wants to stay there for the minimum possible time.”

He said Antonio was someone who simply should not drink, as she was unable to control herself when she did and that the trouble she got into was invariably linked to intoxication.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said that after careful consideration of the matter and noting Antonio’s previous convictions he had no option but to give her a custodial sentence.

He added: “Given the circumstances of these offences this will be a relatively short period of prison and an appropriate supervised release order.”

He gave her six months for threatening and abusive behaviour and four months for possession of a knife in public, to run concurrently, back dated till the fourth of March.

On her release Antonio will also have to complete three months under the supervision of a social worker plus the balance of an uncompleted 120 hours of unpaid work she had been undertaking at the time of the offence.