A Valium-fuelled Elgin man who was offered shelter by a concerned good Samaritan repaid that kindness by brandishing a hammer and sending her fleeing from her own home.
Connor Gray was heard noisily thrashing about outside a block of flats in Lhanbryde’s Garmouth Road at 1am before he was invited in by a worried resident.
However, when he got to her door he pulled out a metal hammer which sent the homeowner fleeing and calling for help.
Fiscal depute Shamielah Ghafar told Elgin Sheriff Court the incident happened on Wednesday, March 20: “Looking out the window she saw he was heavily under the influence and was very unsteady on his feet.
Had hammer in backpack
“She invited him up to her home. However at this time he withdrew a claw hammer from his backpack.
“She ran from the home and the accused entered her address.”
Concerned for his welfare, the woman immediately called NHS 24 but police turned up first and found Gray, 31, on the floor with the metal hammer lying beside him.
Gray’s alarming behaviour continued after he was arrested by police and placed in the back of a van where he called officers “c**ts” and disablist slurs before repeatedly threatening: “I will f**king kill yous.”
Valium had ‘dramatic consequences’
Defence agent Ben Thom said his client had been “self-medicating” with Valium at the time of the hammer incident and was struggling with his mental health.
“The narration shows the concern members of the public had for his state both physical and mental at the time,” he said.
“He was experiencing a downturn in his mental health and was self-medicating with Valium and with quite dramatic consequences.”
The court also heard how on a different occasion, on July 20 last year, Gray was found with a 2.5 inch flick knife at the University of the Highlands and Islands main Moray campus in Elgin.
Mr Thom said Gray now knew it was an “immature” thing to carry.
“The severity of the matter is not lost on him,” Mr Thom added. “It was an oversight on his part and he now recognises it was an immature item to have.”
Gray, of Earnest Hamilton Court, Elgin, pled guilty to one charge of knife possession and another of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner.
Sheriff Robert McDonald handed him a six-month supervision order and 120 hours of unpaid work.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen and the latest crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group.
