A hammer-wielding Inverness man knocked on his neighbour’s door with a hammer and shouted: “Come on then you b******, I’m ready!”
Michael McPhee told another neighbour “I’m going to kill him” in the moments before the incident.
His solicitor told the court he had been struggling with alcohol addiction and poor mental health at the time.
McPhee, 56, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit threatening and abusive behaviour at the address in Friars Street, Inverness, on September 23 of this year.
Fiscal depute Adelle Gray said McPhee had initially gone to the door of another neighbour at 2.38pm asking for a baseball bat and knives.
Man had saw and hammer
When the man told him these items were not there, McPhee went away and returned a short time later “with a saw and hammer in his hand”.
He told the man: “I’m going to kill him.”
After this McPhee knocked on his victim’s door with the hammer – causing the man to come to the door to “see what was happening”.
Ms Gray said: “The door burst open and he saw the accused attempting to enter with the hammer in his right hand shouting: ‘Come on then you b******, I’m ready!’.”
The target then “threw himself at the door” and managed to lock it before calling 999, while McPhee hit the door with the hammer.
When police arrived and arrested McPhee who was “shouting loudly, swearing and acting in an aggressive manner”.
Solicitor Clare Russell, for McPhee, told the court that her client had been suffering from alcohol addiction and poor mental health at the time of the incident.
She said with the support of his wife and his church he had now been sober for five weeks and was addressing his issues.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald called for presentencing reports and told McPhee, of Friars Street, Inverness: “I think this offence is quite serious. You had weapons, you pled guilty to that, you were bashing on somebody’s door.”
The case will call again next month.
