Court / Jail for man who attacked and threatened to stab police
A MAN who attacked, spat and threatened to take off a police officer’s face and wear it as a mask has been jailed for three years.
Craig Nelson, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, carried out the astonishing tirade on 9 October 2025 at Hoofields in Lerwick and the town’s police station after a “relapse” of hard substances.
During the hours-long episode Nelson kicked one police officer, headbutted another in the face, repeatedly spat at different officers and threw urine soaked toilet paper at one.
The 47-year-old told officers to “eat sh*t and f***ing die”, and told one officer that the next time he saw them in the street he would “f***ing stab ya”.
To others, he threatened he would “remember your face” and told one: “I’m going to take your face off as a mask and wear it”.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that Nelson had tried to enter the wrong Hoofields address at around 9.30pm, but found the door locked.
The woman inside was too scared to answer the door, which Nelson repeatedly tried the handle off, and tried to explain it was not his house.
But Nelson became even angrier at this, and the woman was left “terrified and shaking”. She decided to call 999.
Police had been made aware of a disturbance in Hoofields already, and found Nelson “lying face down” with a number of injuries.
The court heard he was clearly intoxicated, and began shouting and swearing at the police, making reference to them being “paedos”.
Nelson realised the police were about to try to arrest him, and tried to slam the door on them – with one officer managing to shove his body in the way.
However Nelson then pushed and grabbed the man, before the police managed to force their way in to arrest him.
Nelson repeatedly shouted “you’re not arresting me” and began tensing his body to prevent arrest, with the police having to take him to the ground to get handcuffs on him.
As soon as he was lifted up, Nelson butted one officer on the head.
Again at the police van he refused to be put in the back, lying on the floor of the cell compartment with his legs sticking out of the van.
The court heard how he also threatened to spit in one officer’s face, leading to a spit hood being placed on him, and then kicked another officer on the body.
On the short journey to the police station Nelson repeatedly kicked the inside of the van, then refused to co-operate when they arrived.
He had to be stripped down to his underwear in his cell in order to be searched, where he spat twice at a police officer.
One officer was tasked with watching Nelson with his cell door open, who was then subjected to a volley of abuse and threats.
Nelson also twice urinated on the floor of his cell, soaked toilet paper in urine and threw it at the man, and spat a total of 10 times out at him – with the man hit twice.
The man had to be given a public order shield to defend himself.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client had been doing well with his drug use up until the time of the offence, when he suffered a relapse.
Nelson “can’t recall much of it,” Allan admitted.
He said Nelson was “horrified about his behaviour”, and it had taken a few meetings before he was able to be told what he had actually done.
Nelson had made “no attempt to excuse his behaviour”, and had pleaded guilty when he had learned the extent of his offending.
Sheriff Philip Mann said these were “very serious offences” and that Nelson did not have a very good record when it came to previous offences.
He said there was no option but to impose a custodial sentence.
Sheriff Mann jailed Nelson for three years, backdated to 10 October 2025.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:
- Removal of third-party ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
