A man sparked an armed police response in Aberdeen after confronting his bully – armed with a knife in one hand and a sword in the other.
Steven Whyte, 29, walked up to a man and a woman on Moir Green in Aberdeen in broad daylight with a weapon in each hand and threatened them, brandishing the sword and knife.
Panicked witnesses contacted police, who quickly declared a firearms incident and swooped on the scene, by which time the swordsman had vanished.
Officers eventually traced Whyte just over a month later at which point he boasted he had been “one step ahead” of them the whole time.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “The locus is a residential street in the Northfield area.
“It contains a large communal grass area.
“At around 12.25pm on June 14 the accused was walking in possession of a sword in his right hand and a large knife in his left.
“He was observed by a number of residents.”
Mrs Merson said Whyte approached a man and a woman and shouted and swore before saying: “I’m going to kill you.”
Whyte also brandished the sword and knife but nobody was struck or injured during the incident.
Police were then contacted.
Mrs Merson said: “Due to the mention of a sword it was declared as a firearms incident.”
Police raced to the scene but were unable to trace Whyte, although he was eventually arrested on July 16.
And brazen Whyte then admitted to brandishing the sword, but boasted: “I was one step ahead of you the whole time until today.”
Yesterday at Aberdeen Sheriff Court Whyte appeared by video link from HMP Grampian and pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and to possession of a knife and sword.
Defence agent Iain Hingston said the male Whyte had approached was “well known” to the courts with a “considerable record for very serious violence”.
He said: “That individual has been known to Mr Whyte since Mr Whyte was a small boy and effectively bullied him when he was younger.
“The bullying here extended considerably, just before this offence, to this person and others attending Mr Whyte’s mother’s door looking for Mr Whyte and scaring his mum half to death because they were in possession of a variety of weapons.
“Clearly he should have gone at that point to the authorities. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the cognitive function to think this through.
“A lot of what he does is compulsive.
“He has fully accepted from the word go that this was him and this is what he did.
“The intention was merely to indicate to this individual there are people prepared to stand up to him.
“It went no further. That is not taking away from the, no doubt, fear that they would have felt.
“He is embarrassed and ashamed that others will have been placed in fear and alarm.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Whyte, a prisoner of HMP Grampian: “These are, of course, serious matters.
“I hear what’s been said on your behalf about the individual who seems to have been bullying you for a long time, but of course, as you will now understand, this is certainly not the way to go about dealing with a problem like that.
“I notice that your very last previous conviction, which was recorded as recently as July of last year, involved possession of a knife and a sword.”
The sheriff ordered Whyte to serve 13 months imprisonment in relation to an unexpired portion of a previous sentence, and also imposed a further 14 months in relation to the new offences.
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