A 59-year-old man from Glasgow has been jailed for swearing and acting aggressively towards police officers at Perth Royal Infirmary.
Police constables attended the hospital’s accident and emergency department at around 1.45am on the morning of February 6 this year in relation to an unrelated matter and observed James Boyd kicking off in a waiting area.
“He was being verbally abusive, demanding to be treated for a sore foot,” fiscal depute Elizabeth Hodgson told Perth Sheriff Court last week.
Ms Hodgson said medical staff told Boyd he did not require any treatment for his foot but this only made him more angry.
“Police witnesses tried to calm him down [but] he became more belligerent and abusive, telling the officers to ‘f*** off’,” Ms Hodgson said.
She added when he was asked if he had taken anything to relieve the pain he claimed to be in he swore at them again, saying: “I don’t have any pain relief, f*** off.”
Boyd, of Paisley Road, Glasgow, pled guilty to a single charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by repeatedly shouting, swearing and adopting an aggressive demeanour towards police.
The charge as set out on court papers said Boyd was on bail at the time of the offence granted on January 25 and 31 this year at Glasgow and Strathkelvin Sheriff Court.
Defence solicitor John McLaughlin explained Boyd had suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon and got annoyed when he thought he was being ignored by medical staff.
“He took umbrage to the fact he wasn’t being treated,” he said. “He accepts he shouldn’t have acted that way in an accident and emergency department.”
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael sentenced Boyd to four months in prison.
