Jailed for breaching curfew four times

Kevin McNiven, 26, admitted the breaches.

The final charge arose when police found him hiding in a wardrobe in a bedroom in another house.

McNiven had been granted bail on June 13 last year with a curfew keeping him in his father’s house in Hawkwood Terrace, Forth, every night from 6pm until 6am.

But police officers who called to check he was there on July 23, and again on August 20 and September 24, found he was not.

His father on a couple of occasions told them McNiven had gone out in the morning and had not returned.

And on the final occasion, on October 2, he was found in a wardrobe elsewhere.

Solicitor Archie Hill said that McNiven’s father was an alcoholic and claimed that McNiven had found it difficult to live with him, eventually being required to “remove himself” from the house.

The court had then changed his bail address to one in King’s Crescent, Carluke, but in October he had been outwith that address too, with police receiving a report at 8pm that he was at another house.

He added that McNiven had been in custody since February 20 after failing to appear in court earlier that month.

“He is obviously anxious to secure his liberty today,” added Mr Hill.

Jailing McNiven, Sheriff Derek O’Carroll told him: “These are serious offences because you were placed in a position of trust by the court, and you have breached it not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.

“Prison is the only possibility.”

Two of the offences also involved breaches of bail, and the sheriff imposed sentences totalling 44 weeks, but backdated them to run from February 20.