A MAN who threatened to petrol-bomb his former partner’s home in Whitecrook has been spared a prison sentence.

John MacLeod, 30, repeatedly kicked the front door of the Longden Street property, repeatedly struck the windows and doors, forced entry, entered uninvited, shouted, swore and threatened violence.

MacLeod, of Linthouse Drive in Govan, appeared in court for sentencing on Friday after pleading guilty to charges of wilfully or recklessly destroying or damaging someone else’s property and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm.

Fiscal depute Craig Wainwright told the court MacLeod’s former partner had been within the property at 1.10pm on October 7 last year when she heard MacLeod shout and bang on the locked front door. 

Mr Wainwright said: “She then heard the windows at the back of the house being knocked and heard rattling at the front door. 

“The accused shouted ‘you’ve got three seconds to open this door or I’m kicking it in’. 

“A loud bang came from the front door and witnesses saw the accused standing in the hallway. He was told police would be contacted and made his way back out through the broken front door.”

Mr Wainwright said MacLeod had then threatened to petrol-bomb the house if he didn’t get what he wanted.

Police were called, but by the time officers arrived at the house MacLeod was nowhere to be seen.

However, MacLeod attended Clydebank police station voluntarily later that day and was cautioned and charged.

MacLeod’s solicitor, James Mulgrew, told the court the incident happened after the end of his client’s four-year relationship with the woman.

Mr Mulgrew said: “He was concerned and frustrated and unfortunately attended the address in the manner libelled.

“He has no offences of a domestic nature on his record. He is assessed as being at minimal risk of reoffending or harm.”
MacLeod appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to the charges at a hearing on December 8, when sentence was deferred for a background report.

Mr Mulgrew said that report assessed Macleod as a man who had “limited insight into the offence” and asked Sheriff William Gallacher to impose an alternative to a prison sentence.

Sheriff  William Gallacher said he did not accept the social worker’s assessment that MacLeod posed a “minimal risk” and called the report “rose-tinted”. The sheriff told MacLeod: “This is an offence of gratuitous violence and the threat of even greater violence. Your behaviour went from bad to worse. 

“You shouldn’t have been there in the first instance, and you should have behaved appropriately. Your behaviour was utterly disgraceful.”

MacLeod – who also admitted a separate charge of failing to appear at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on November 2 – was placed under social workers’ supervision until July 2019 and told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work within nine months as part of a community payback order.

He was ordered to return to court on May 3 for a review of the order.