Noisy neighbour dispute: '˜You want me to bring his carcass into the station?'

Yeardly had been drinking gin all day when he made his call to police

Justin Yeardly (42) made his murder threats during several early evening phone calls he made to police complaining about the behaviour of his neighbour. He told the he would take matters into his own hands if they did not deal with it.

Yeardly appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday having admitted behaving in a threatening manner at his 29 Park Avenue, Laurieston home on December 18 last year.

Ruaridh Ferguson, procurator fiscal depute, said: “The accused himself called the police at 6.10pm. He was complaining about his neighbours who he said were banging on his walls. During the course of the first call the operator believed he sounded drunk.

“During the calls the accused said, ‘If you don’t deal with it I’m going to’, ‘Do you want me to bring his carcass into the police station?’, ‘What do you think the body count will be?’ and ‘I’ll deal with it myself’.”

Yeardly ended one call by stating the person next door would be “fighting for his life”.

Police arrived at his address shortly afterwards to arrest him – but his deadly threats did not end there.

Mr Ferguson said: “During the course of the journey to the police station he told officers, ‘Someone’s going to die for this. Take me back home or I will take you all out. He added, ‘I don’t even know my neighbours – I think this is bloody ridiculous’.

“He said, ‘The only reason I’m in this van is because you arrested me for no apparent reason’.”

The court heard Yeardly had started drinking gin at 11am that morning.

Stephen Biggam said: “He has had difficulty with his neighbours and was given advice to call the police. Unfortunately for him , having consumed alcohol, he didn’t get the reaction he expected and he talked himself into getting arrested with juvenile, almost infantile, remarks.

“He had worked himself up into a frenzy because he wasn’t getting much joy from the police.”

Sheriff Derek Livingston said: “If you keep offending this way the court will be left with no alternative but prison.”

Yeardly was placed on a supervised community payback order for two years with the condition he attend for alcohol treatment. A review of the order was called for in eight week’s time.