STAFF at Clydebank’s Asda supermarket were left terrified after a customer made death threats towards them and their colleagues.

Alexander Taylor hurled threatening and sectarian abuse towards staff at the store and police who were called to deal with him.

And he directed a foul-mouthed racist tirade at a passer-by as he was being taken to the town’s police station.

The 49-year-old was brought to court for sentencing on Friday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner which was likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm.

Emma Thomson, prosecuting, told Dumbarton Sheriff Court that staff at the store had approached Taylor after he entered the store at 9.10am on May 19 sweating, out of breath and “heavily under the influence of substances unknown”.

Ms Thomson said: “The accused replied that people were chasing him. He became abusive and insulting to another member of staff, saying he had smelly breath.

“The accused was asked to attend the security room within the store and became extremely aggressive, and police were called.”

When officers arrived five minutes later, they saw Taylor being restrained by two staff members and heard him making threats towards staff, including “I’ll f****** kill you, you c***”, “I’ll kill your whole f****** team, get them all in here” and “youse f*** off ya p*****, are you not ashamed to work for that scabby f****** crowd?”.

Taylor continued his abusive tirade after being arrested, shouting sectarian abuse and shouting threats to one of the police officers: “I hope your daughter and wife get brutally raped”.

Ms Thomson said Taylor had been taken from the store to hospital and, after treatment, from there to Clydebank police office – but on the way to the station, he saw an “unknown black female” walking along Argyll Road and aimed a volley of racist abuse in her direction.

Taylor’s solicitor, Brian Lanigan, said his client had been affected by mental health issues at the time of the offences, which were followed eight days later by a further offence in the Kilmarnock area, leading to a series of psychiatric reports being requested.

Mr Lanigan said: “There were three reports in the end. It was clear from the start of this year that he wasn’t well.

“He may not be suffering from a diagnosed psychiatric illness but it’s clear he was affected.

“He’s been in custody since May 31 at Kilmarnock Prison. He’s been prescribed a drug which seems to have stabilised him. He’s now off that and appears to be coping well. But this behaviour was quite clearly unacceptable.”

After hearing that Taylor, of Spey Road, Bearsden, had received a 30-month prison sentence for the Kilmarnock matter, Sheriff John Hamilton imposed concurrent four-month jail terms on each of the Clydebank charges, to run alongside the Kilmarnock sentence.