Court / Sentence deferred again on Swannie after Lerwick knife attack
A MAN who threatened two people with a knife and told one he was going to kill her has had his sentence referred to the High Court.
Kyle Swannie also left one victim with stab wounds behind his ears which required hospital treatment during the assault on 14 September last year at their Lerwick address.
Sentence was deferred last week for a written narration, but Sheriff Philip Mann decided on Wednesday he had no option but to refer the case to the High Court – with sentence deferred for a further four weeks.
Swannie, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, appeared via video-link but was muted for the duration.
The court heard Swannie, 29, had entered the address at around 9pm.
One of the two complainers was out for a walk and was alerted by her Ring doorbell app that someone was at the door.
When she clicked on the footage, the doorbell was facing into the house and she could see Swannie, with his face covered with a black snood, holding a knife and punching and pushing a man inside the property.
She called the police and told them that Swannie had been threatening the man the previous week.
The woman approached the house, still on the 999 call, and had the “presence of mind” to think to tell him that she was on the phone to her mother.
When she entered, she saw the complainer bleeding heavily from injuries to his head. Her “distress and fear” was palpable on the recorded 999 call, procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said.
Swannie was shouting at her “where’s my f***ing money” and repeatedly brandishing a knife, while telling her to hang up the phone.
The woman was heard to scream as she closed the 999 call.
Swannie then held her against the wall, with the knife in his hand, and told her: “I will find out if you’re grassing. I will kill you either way.”
Mackenzie told the court the woman was “terrified” and thought “she was going to die”.
The other complainer threw items at Swannie, which caused him to become distracted and allowed the woman to escape.
Despite his ordeal, the male victim refused to co-operate with police.
He required hospital treatment for a seven centimetre wound above his left ear and a six centimetre wound above his right ear. One required to be stapled shut, with the other glued up.
Police were able to find the knife at the address, which was later confirmed to have Swannie’s DNA on the handle.
Attempts to trace him failed until he was spotted on Lerwick’s Commercial Street by two on-duty police officers ten days later, on 24 September 2025, who followed him when he ducked into a jewellery shop.
Swannie was arrested, and went on to threaten one officer by telling him he would “blow your brains out” before making a derogatory remark related to sexual orientation.
Defence agent Tommy Allan firstly said Swannie wanted to apologise for his disruptive behaviour during the hearing last week.
He then asked Sheriff Mann to consider dealing with the matter today (Wednesday).
But the sheriff said there was no way he could impose a sentence, and that it had to be passed to the High Court to consider.
Sentence was deferred for four weeks.
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