Man jailed for disorder at Inverness homeless hostel
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A RESIDENT in a homeless hostel barricaded himself into his room before smashing a fire alarm.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard Alan O’Neill (27) was staying at the hostel in the city’s Church Street when he told staff he wanted to leave.
Depute fiscal Roderick Urquhart said an ambulance was subsequently called and police also attended.
O’Neill went to his room and barricaded himself in and Mr Urquhart said he shouted threats to stab a member of staff.
“The decision was taken to leave him there and he would be evicted later,” said the fiscal. “The police left with the agreement that they would return if required.”
Mr Urquhart said the fire alarm was later broken by O’Neill who was eventually arrested after police found him in nearby Lombard Street.
“Prior to being arrested he phoned the police saying he wanted to be arrested because he didn’t want to live in the HMO (a house of multi-occupancy),” Mr Urquhart said.
O’Neill had previously been placed on a community order for the offence, which was committed on September 20, 2016, but the court heard this week he had only carried out 30 minutes of 100 hours unpaid work he was told to do.
The order was revoked and Sheriff Fleetwood jailed O’Neill for four months instead.
