Compensation order for '˜horrible' comments to police officer

A Carstairs chef has been spared a jail sentence for making 'horrible' remarks to a female police officer, but he was ordered to pay her £1,800 in compensation.
Wishaw General Hospital.Wishaw General Hospital.
Wishaw General Hospital.

And sheriff Ross Macfarlane would have made that £2,500 but for the fact that Colin Allison had pled guilty, saving the need for a trial.

Allison, 24, of Carstairs Road, denied being involved in a stand-up fight there on April 11, and that was accepted by the crown, but Lanark Sheriff Court heard last Wednesday that at the police station he complained of dizziness, and as a precaution officers took him to Wishaw General Hospital.

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And he pled guilty to a charge that there he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner, shouting, swearing, and uttering offensive marks and threats of violence.

Depute fiscal Ziad Hassan said that Allison repeatedly called the officers terms like “f***ing idiots” and was dissatisfied at the time taken for him to be seen by a casualty doctor while other patients with more serious conditions and child patients were being attended to.

But he then directed a stream of comments towards the female police officer, one being ‘I’ll p*** all over your t*ts, you f***ing h***”, which Mr Hassan read out in court; and made others towards her male colleague, shouting at both in front of nurses.

“Due to his conduct, the medical staff refused to treat him until he had calmed down, and the decision was taken to remove him to Motherwell police office, where he was placed on constant observation,” added Mr Hassan.

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Allison had been drinking that day, but solicitor Archie Hill told the court: “He suspects someone had given him a tablet over and above the drink. He has absolutely no recollection of this.

“He wishes to convey his horror and his apologies to the officers for his behaviour.”

Mr Hill said that when an earlier solicitor had read Allison the remarks, “he was horrified”.

The solicitor accepted that the sheriff would be considering jail, and the sheriff said that if someone had made such comments to Allison’s daughters, Allison would want to see him locked up.

“It is a horrible thing to say to anyone,” Mr Hill agreed.

“He cannot understand where he got that from.”

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Stressing that it was completely unacceptable, Sheriff Macfarlane asked if the chef would be able to pay a compensation order.

Mr Hill confirmed that he could and that Allison realised that it would be a substantial sum to compensate her for the obvious distress the officer had suffered at the time. He could take on overtime to find the money for the payments.

Imposing the order, Sheriff Macfarlane told Allison: “You yourself must be disgusted with this whole thing.

“You are the father of two daughters. If someone said that to them, what would your reaction be?”

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And he added that Allison deserved custody when a police officer doing her duty “had been faced with that filth”.

He imposed the compensation order, reducing it to £1,800, and ordering Allison to pay it at £150 a month.

Allison’s plea of not guilty was accepted to a charge of assaulting, obstructing or hindering two female nurses in the hospital at that time.