A LOUT who went unpunished after hurling abuse at a sheriff has now been slapped with an order to complete hundreds of hours of unpaid work.

Jordan Marshall, 18, spat insults towards Sheriff Linda Smith after being hauled into court for repeatedly breaching an electronic tagging order and then refusing to adhere to it.

Marshall called the sheriff a 'speccy wee hound' and 'a rat', among other unprintable comments, during a shocking outburst last month which caused his mother to burst into tears.

He was let off with his barrage of abuse, and Sheriff Smith cancelled the tagging order after being told by defence solicitor Gerry Keenan: "He is not willing to comply with the curfew."

But lawman Andrew McIntyre has now replaced the 5pm-5am home detention — imposed for vandalism and a racially aggravated hospital disturbance — with a community payback order.

Marshall, of Balloch Road in Greenock, must complete 245 hours of unpaid work within nine months.

Sheriff McIntyre declared: "It is not for the restriction of liberty order to simply disappear, it may have been revoked but it can't just rest there.

"An alternative to the tag needs to be imposed."

Marshall, who was said by his lawyer to have 'substantial mental health problems', cut off his tag twice.

It had been imposed on him after he smashed the windows of parked cars in Watt Place.

He later behaved in a threatening or abusive manner at Inverclyde Royal Hospital by shouting, swearing, threatening police officers with violence and making racial remarks.

Solicitor Charles Drummond, who represented Marshall at the latest calling of the case, said: "There were very particular difficulties regarding the restriction of liberty order."