A Stirling man who produced two knives, including a Bowie knife, during a row with a neighbour was this week jailed for nine months.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that the incident had occurred at a Pinkieknowe address on the afternoon of July 24 last year.
Thirty-two-year-old Robert Barclay had admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner and making threats while in possession of knives.
Fiscal depute Sean Iles told Stirling Sheriff Court the crime occurred around 12.35pm in the front garden of a Pinkieknowe house.
Barclay’s neighbour and others, he said, had been within their home and aware their next-door neighbours had been drinking and arguing with each other “for some considerable time”.
Mr Iles added that the neighbour made his way outside to get an item he had left in his car.
He saw Barclay on the grass in the front garden and the witness asked the accused to move. Barclay however became aggressive towards the witness.
Mr Iles added: “The witness thereafter returned with a baseball bat from his own vehicle, and at that point the accused entered his house and came back out holding two large knives.
“One was a large fillet knife and the other a Bowie knife which was 10 inches in length.”
Barclay told his neighbour: ‘I’m going to end you. You are f****** dead.’
Police arrived after being contacted by another witness and Barclay was taken to Falkirk Police Office where he was cautioned and charged.
Barclay’s lawyer Virgil Crawford told Sheriff Derek Hamilton that his client took possession of the knives “essentially to get [his neighbour] to back off”, adding: “He did and someone took the baseball bat from him.”
Barclay then took the knives back into the house.
Mr Crawford further accepted that the accused should never have come out of the house with the knives in the first place and “should have known better”.
There had been no further difficulties with the neighbour, Mr Crawford said.
There was also a range of non-custodial sentencing options. The last matter on Barclay’s record, Mr Crawford said, had been 2019. However, he did have an outstanding petition (solemn) matter.
Sheriff Hamilton noted that Barclay’s record included a previous conviction for carrying a knife.
He said: “I have said often that knives have no place in society.
“On this occasion you decided to arm yourself with two knives and go back to threaten.”
The fact Barclay did not use the knives, he added, was “neither here nor there”.
Sheriff Hamilton continued: “Nobody knows what’s going to happen in that situation.”
He sentenced Barclay to nine months’ imprisonment - reduced from 10 months’ due to his guilty plea as “a lesson” that carrying knives is “unacceptable”.
