An Aberdeen man who accused a kebab shop worker of being an Islamic State terrorist has been fined.
First offender William Doherty drunkenly told a man who had just served him food that he “shouldn’t have come to this country”.
He then continued the insults by saying to the man – who he believed to be a Moslem – that “you cut heads off” and “you are all terrorists”.
Yesterday, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the 58-year-old was “mortified” by his drunken outburst.
Fiscal depute Karen Dow said that Doherty had been out drinking on the evening of February 22 when he decided to go to the takeaway restaurant in Market Street around midnight.
She told the court the father-of-three then ordered some food before sitting down inside to eat.
It was then Doherty started to act in a threatening and abusive manner, shouting and swearing and uttering offensive remarks.
Ms Dow said following the confrontation, staff at the kebab shop reported Doherty’s behaviour to a police officer who was walking nearby.
When he was cautioned and arrested he told police the men in the kebab shop had “kicked off” because he “called them Islamists”.
Representing Doherty, of 16 Broomhill Avenue, Aberdeen, solicitor Andrew Ormiston said his client was “disgusted with himself” for making the remarks.
He said Doherty, who yesterday admitted acting in a religiously aggravated threatening and abusive manner, was aware that he “should have known better”.
He told the court he wanted to make a public apology, not only to those he had insulted, but to the general Islamic population.
He said: “He was reacting to the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the terrorist attacks, which had just happened, in Paris.
“He recognises that his comments were far too sweeping in their nature.
“He completely acknowledges that not all Moslems are associated with or members of the Islamic State, and are in themselves two separate things.”
Sheriff Marysia Lewis told Doherty that he was right to be mortified by his actions.
She fined him £400.