A WHITECROOK man repeatedly spat on his own mother and shouted threats and vile obscenities at cops.

Jamie O’Donnell’s lawyer claimed his client turned from Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde after taking a drink.

But the 27-year-old was spared jail – though a sheriff told him it was his “one last chance” to avoid prison.

O’Donnell, of Macdonald Crescent, appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday.

He had previously admitted offences on two separate dates – August 20, 2019, and May 30 last year.

On the first of those dates O’Donnell shouted, swore and uttered threats at a property in Regent Place in Dalmuir and inside a police van, just weeks after being made the subject of a court bail order.

Then, last May, he repeatedly spat on his mother’s head and repeatedly shouted and swore at her at a property in Glen Avenue in Balloch.

At the scene, and during a journey from there to Clydebank police station, he threatened to harm police and hurled verbal abuse and obscenities at them and their families.

The court heard how O’Donnell had told police: “See you? Go and f*** your mother, you mongrel.”

He then said “seee if you dug up your dead mother, I will sh** her, you mongrels”, and “when my wrists come off, so does your face.”

Making the Jekyll and Hyde comparison, O’Donnell’s solicitor, Stephen McGuire, told Friday’s hearing: “When sober, he has a lot to contribute. When he is drinking his behaviour becomes abusive and aggressive.”

But Sheriff John Hamilton said author Robert Louis Stevenson had actually been trying to point out that the “veneer of civilisation actually was veiled by this potion”.

He said: “What we are dealing with is the real Jamie O’Donnell.”

O’Donnell, the court heard, still had 36 hours to do of a 225-hour unpaid work order imposed in 2019. Social work supervision imposed with that order is also due to end soon.

The court heard O’Donnell had been caught drinking in public in January this year.

Citing a background report, Sheriff Hamilton said O’Donnell had claimed he attended Alcoholics Anonymous, but “didn’t feel this was helpful”.

Mr McGuire said: “He realises he has a problem.”

But the sheriff pointed it took until just four days before the court appearance for O’Donnell to contact alcohol charity DACA.

He said: “All the evidence says to me he doesn’t get the alcohol problem you’re saying he does.”

Giving him “one last chance”, the sheriff handed O’Donnell a new community payback order, as a direct alternative to jail.

The order will see him supervised by social workers for two years. He was also ordered to carry out a further 260 hours of unpaid work.

The order also has a conduct requirement for him to attend alcohol counselling or treatment.