A church beadle from Inverness who turned up at a benefits assessment with a kitchen knife has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
Campbell Freeman, 52, of Knocknagael, went into the Centre for Health and Disability in the city’s Baron Taylor Street and produced a knife on October 25 last year.
But, following Freeman’s guilty plea on December 16, Sheriff Margaret Neilson was told that he didn’t intend to harm or frighten anyone, and had absent-mindedly placed his breakfast knife and fork into a bag containing other items and documentation.
The centre is a small office that undertakes assessments of benefit claimants’ capacity to work on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart previously told the court that, during the assessment, the nurse asked the accused about his mental health and he responded by producing what witnesses later described as a kitchen knife with a black handle and five-inch long steel blade.
The knife was removed to the other office while the nurse continued with the assessment and, in the meantime, another member of staff, Ms Bradbury, phoned her line manager who advised her that, unless Freeman was being threatening, they did not need to contact police.
Yesterday in court Sheriff Neilson said: “It was an unusual matter because the ladies never felt threatened.
“In all of the circumstances, despite being a serious matter, and despite previous convictions, I am prepared to make a community payback as an alternative to custody.”