Man on drugs smashed cars with baseball bat and attacked police

Jamie Simeon pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Picture: TSPL

Jamie Simeon of Saughton Mains Street, Edinburgh, pled guilty at the city’s Sheriff Court today to a total of 13 charges and was told by Sheriff Robert Fife, who deferred sentence for reports, that it was only because Simeon was receiving treatment that he was not remanding him in custody.

He warned him, however, that all options were open and he would be considering a custodial sentence.

Fiscal Depute, Lorna Ferrier, said that about 10 am on April 22 last year, Simeon was at home with his partner. He had been drinking alcohol and told her he had been consuming cocaine.

“He received a phone call from someone unknown” said the Fiscal, “which caused him to become extremely agitated and he left the house”.

At 10.45am, a taxi driver coming along Stenhouse Drive with passenger, saw Simeon, who appeared angry, wildly swinging a baseball bat about. He struck the windscreen of the car shattering the glass, which struck the taxi driver on the face. Simeon then ran down the street, smashing the windows of a further four vehicles.

The police were contacted and officers saw Simeon armed with a large metallic baseball bat. Ms Ferrier said: “The accused ran over to the police vehicle and smashed the bat straight through the driver’s window, showering the officers with glass”.

He continued to try and strike the officers with the bat and a spray was used, but had no effect. The officers drove off for a short distance, did a U-turn and drove back towards Simeon.

The Fiscal said a member of the public, who had a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, had seen what had been happening and prepared to set his dog on the accused to help the police. Simeon struck the dog on the head with full force with the bat and it fell over. An officer used the spray again to distract Simeon, but he was again unaffected. At this point, two other officers arrived in a police van. When they left the vehicle, both were attacked by Simeon, one being struck on the head by the bat and the other on a hand.

Sheriff Fife asked Ms Ferrier if the dog had been injured and was told it suffered a bleeding nose, but had been given pain killing injections by a vet to calm it down.

Sentence was deferred until March.