A Turriff man hurled death threats at police officers before smearing excrement over himself and his cell.
Ian McCafferty’s disgusting behaviour came after a disturbance in the early hours of the morning in Turriff.
He had to be restrained to the ground by members of the public and when police turned up to arrest him he turned “hostile”, threatening to bite one officer’s nose off and give her Hepatitis B.
It was in the Fraserburgh custody suite that the 47-year-old carried out his so-called dirty protest, writing “f*** your system” in faeces on his cell wall and smeared himself in his own excrement.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that police first picked him up at 2.40am in Hillcrest Road in Turriff, where he was being restrained by two members of the public on January 14 this year.
Tried to spit at and bite officers
He said he “immediately became hostile” with officers and kicked one in the stomach, repeatedly kicked out at them with his legs and then, while being restrained on the ground, spat towards one officer’s face before he told her he had Hepatitis C and tried to bite her hand.
The fiscal said: “The accused continued to act in a volatile manner and stated to the officers’ alarm that he would ‘bite your nose off’.
“He threatened to kill both officers and generally delivered a tirade of derogatory abuse.”
Threats in police van
“While en route to Fraserburgh custody suite he stated that he had urinated in the van cell and threatened to defecate within the van,” the fiscal added. “He continued to make threats of violence.”
He went on to throw a cup of water at officers and tried to spit on the face of another.
Mr Middleton said: “Whilst within the cell, he defecated and smeared his excrement across the cell walls, over his face and body and wrote ‘f*** your system’ on the wall with excrement.”
The specialist clear-up job came at a cost of £230 to Police Scotland.
McCafferty, who appeared from custody, admitted four charges of assault and one of threatening or abusive behaviour.
‘Absolutely disgusting’ behaviour
Defence agent Mike Monro said that “to call these unpleasant circumstances would be the understatement of the day”.
“What can one say in mitigation for behaviour of this type?” he asked. “He behaved, he accepts, in an absolutely disgusting manner.
“Unacceptable at any time, but in particular at this time because of all we had to go through with the pandemic.
“When this accused is in a proper mental state he is very apologetic.
“He doesn’t want to cause issues for police or authorities but, by jove, in this case, he certainly did.”
Mr Monro added that his client’s “obnoxious” behaviour would only improve when he is not involved with drug and alcohol abuse.
He also apologised for the “disgusting behaviour” on behalf of McCafferty.
Sheriff Ian Wallace jailed McCafferty, a prisoner of HMP Grampian since January, for 21 months backdated to his remand date.
As he was led to awaiting prisoner transport, McCafferty bared his bottom for our photographer.
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