Knife-wielding yob avoids prison sentence

Callum O’Malley told officers he was “having a bad trip” after bingeing on drugs and alcohol.

As police approached him in the street, he pulled a kitchen knife with a seven-inch blade out of his pocket.

He told them: “I’ll give you this before I do something bad with it.”

Livingston Sheriff Court was told that O’Malley was on bail after being arrested three weeks earlier for carrying an axe.

He was arrested for that offence after smashing the weapon into a door.

O’Malley, 21, of Livingston, West Lothian, appeared for sentence yesterday.

He earlier admitted having an axe in public and using it to vandalise the door in Craigshill, Livingston, on October 9, 2011.

He also pleaded guilty to carrying a blade in the same area on October 26 while on bail.

Gerry Bann, defending, said: “October wasn’t a good month for Mr O’Malley. Alcohol was at the centre of his behaviour. It’s not an excuse but it explains it.”

O’Malley was placed under supervision for a year and ordered to carry out 235 hours of unpaid community work.

Sheriff Donald Muirhead told him: “The idea of you walking round a residential area carrying a very large axe is not a picture I want to take home with me.”