A man smashed up a chip shop – after he was refused cheese sauce.
Charles MacLennan went to Renato’s on Dingwall High Street on Sunday afternoon having just been freed from spending 15 months on remand awaiting trial.
After ordering chips and cheese sauce, the 41-year-old was turned away because he couldn’t pay for it.
MacLennan then claimed he heard someone call him “a beast” – which enraged him because he had been acquitted last Friday by a jury of serious offences.
Bruised and bloodied
Launching into a rage, MacLennan threw items at the shop worker, vaulted the counter and punched a shop worker in the eye.
He then headbutted the man, leaving him bruised and bloodied.
MacLennan appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court on Monday and admitted two charges of threatening and abusive behaviour and one of assault to injury.
Fiscal depute Shay Traynor told Sheriff David Harvie today: “He appeared to be intoxicated in the shop.
“When he ordered chips and cheese sauce, he was told he did not have enough
money and his behaviour escalated.
“He got on the counter and began throwing items.
“When the member of staff grabbed him by the shoulders to stop him, he was punched and head-butted.”
‘You are dead’
The court heard how MacLennan left the shop and walked into a nearby car park.
Police then arrived and arrested him.
Mr Traynor added: “Officers described his behaviour as highly volatile and
erratic and he made various threats to them.
“They included: ‘I am slashing you, you little rat’.
‘You are dead when I get out of this van. I am innocent’
‘I am smashing your face in’ and ‘I am murdering you.’
Mr Traynor said: “His comments included references to an officer being ‘lesbian’.”
Defending, Myhrin Hill told the court: “He was released from custody on Friday after being remanded awaiting trial for 15 months and he says his mental health has been affected.
“He was subsequently acquitted (of the charges he had been on remand for).
“Someone (in the chip shop) made a comment to him about the charges against him and called him ‘a beast’.”
‘I am not sitting on remand’
When Ms Hill suggested the possibility of deferring sentencing so a background report could be written, Sheriff Harvie asked what MacLennan’s preference was.
The sheriff said: “I can defer sentence for a report but he will be remanded in custody or does he want a jail sentence today?”
This prompted an outburst by MacLennan, who was surrounded in the dock by prisoner escort staff.
He shouted: “I am not sitting on remand. It does my ****ing skull in.
“Give me a sentence. He (the sheriff) seems hell bent on sending me to jail anyway.”
After a brief consultation with Ms Hill, MacLennan relented.
He told the solicitor he would wait three weeks on remand for the background report to be prepared.
MacLennan is now due to be sentenced on March 27 and he was again remanded in custody.
MacLennan, of Mart Road, Dingwall, continued to rant as he was led away.