Court / Prison term for ‘very serious offences’
A MAN who threatened two people with a knife and told one he was going to kill her has been given a prison sentence totalling nearly two years.
Kyle Swannie, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, 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.
The 29-year-old was sentenced to a total of 692 days in prison when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday from custody via video link.
The court previously heard how Swannie 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.
The court heard how 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 at an earlier hearing.
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 an officer.
At Wednesday’s hearing defence agent Tommy Allan said regarding the offences that Swannie had intended to keep away from the drug scene but failed to do so.
He referenced Swannie being diagnosed with ADHD and how that can affect his control of situations.
Allan added that Swannie intends to go to rehab once he is out of custody.
The defence agent also said one of the complainers said in their initial police statement that Swannie told them he was “not going to hurt” them.
Sheriff Philip Mann said: “These are very serious offences [which] I’m sure caused great fear or alarm.”
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