Prisoner terrified woman with syringe at her home

Jul 9 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A TERRIFIED woman was confronted on her doorstep by a prisoner on early release with a needle in his hand who was demanding to get into her house.

Linlithgow Sheriff Court heard that at around 3.30pm on June 17 this year the occupier of a property on Falconer Rise, Livingston returned home and saw Craig McAlinden standing on a path near to her house.

She went in and around 20 minutes later she heard banging at the door. When she opened it she saw McAlinden standing there holding a syringe.

He dropped it and she shut the door and called her uncle to come and help her.

McAlinden continued to kick and bang at the door and living room window and was also heard to shout and swear.

The woman’s uncle arrived and saw the 28 year old standing at her front door.

When he asked McAlinden to leave he ignored him and continued to kick the door. The police arrived shortly afterwards and took McAlinden to hospital as he appeared to be under the influence of drugs.

As they were escorting him back to the police station after his check-up he twice called one of the officers a “black b*****d”.

Last week at the court McAlinden, whose address was given as Durward Rise, Livingston, pled guilty to a breach of the peace and acting in a racially aggravated manner.

His solicitor, Glenn Fraser, told the court his client, who had been recently freed from prison on early release at the time of the offence, had a serious drug problem.

Mr Fraser added: “He served the latter part of his sentence at Addiewell and drugs were much more readily available there than at Saughton.

“He had gone through rehab in Edinburgh but drugs were always in easy reach in Addiewell. He has very little recollection of the full incident. He attended the address because one of his friends had previously stayed there.

“He had the syringe because he had been taking drugs that day.

“He concedes it was not at all appropriate behaviour.”

However, Sheriff Martin Edington was not impressed: “Do you have any idea how this householder must have felt going to her front door and finding him standing there with a syringe?”

But Mr Fraser insisted the drug addict wasn’t trying to threaten his victim with the syringe.

Mr Fraser said: “He didn’t have it for malicious reason and dropped it as soon as she opened the door.

“It was not a premeditated matter and it wasn’t stealing which accounts for the majority of his record.

“He has spent long periods of time in custody in the past seven years and is in danger of becoming institutionalised.”

However Sheriff Edington said he had no option but to jail McAlinden. Sentencing him to 390 days Sheriff Edington said: “As far as I can see you have twice breached recently imposed probation orders and you appear to me to have tried to minimise your involvement in these offences.

“You are assessed by the social work department at a very high risk of reoffending.

“You don’t pay fines and are addicted to heroin. You cannot do community service orders or a drug treatment and testing order.

“You have a truly appalling record extending now to eight pages.

“I take the view that the two charges on this indictment are very serious indeed.

“These offences took place shortly after your early release from another sentence.

“Whether or not you are in danger of becoming institutionalised the public needs to be protected from people like you.”