Lerwick man invited to ‘turn over new leaf’ and avoid jail sentence

A MAN who was still under supervision for assaulting a police officer has again pleaded guilty to threatening, swearing and spitting at police.

Nathan McAlpine, 22, called officers derogatory names and struggled violently with them on Lerwick’s Scalloway Road on 25 March this year, with his aggressive and threatening behaviour continuing in a police van and at Lerwick Police Station.

McAlpine was arrested after he smashed a window in an external door at an address in Sletts Road, before smashing the kitchen window of a neighbouring home.

After his arrest McAlpine repeatedly shouted and swore at police, refusing to be placed in the back of a police van, and spat at police officers and throughout his cell.

McAlpine, whose address was given as St Olaf Street, Lerwick, also tried to flood his cell by stuffing a blanket in the toilet – causing £250 worth of damage.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that McAlpine had smashed the window of a door on Sletts Road of a person he knew, before smashing the kitchen window of a neighbouring property.

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Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said McAlpine, who had been drinking, had mistakenly thought both windows belonged to the same person.

When police found McAlpine in Scalloway Road just after midnight he was “immediately hostile”, and began verbally abusing them – which “quickly became physical”.

No price had been given for the damage to the two windows, the fiscal said, but he added it was “probably in the hundreds”.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said that McAlpine had been in a relationship which “wasn’t helpful” at the time, which had since ended.

McAlpine “appreciates that he will not get too many chances”, Allan added.

He was still under supervision until September after admitting biting a police officer in an incident on 27 July, the court heard.

Sheriff Philip Mann said these were serious offences which could easily result in a custodial sentence.

However he decided to give McAlpine time to “turn over a new leaf” and prove he had “decided not to continue down his path of lawlessness”.

He gave McAlpine a deferred sentence for nine months, to allow him to be of good behaviour.

Sheriff Mann told him, however, that he can “expect a substantial penalty” after that time – even if that is not a custodial sentence.

McAlpine will return to court for an update on 14 April 2027.