Drunken sailor left 82-year-old mum terrified by banging on door

Peter Campbell caused the elderly pensioner to lock up and turn off all her lights after insisting that he was coming to stay, despite being told he was 'not welcome'.

Campbell, 49, of Greenock, made a string of phone calls to his mum and sparked an alert to police by the OAP as he made his way to her Inverkip home on August 8.

Prosecutor Lindy Scaife told the sheriff court: "During the first phone call his mother realised that he was intoxicated and she told him not to attend at the house.

"He became argumentative and his mother ended the call.

"Around 30 minutes later she received a further call from him, saying that he was now in a taxi on his way to her house.

"She told him that he was not welcome and that he should go home.

"He ignored her and attended at the house at approximately 10pm."

Campbell, of Greenock's Neil Street, had also been charged with smashing his mother's back door window with a brick, however, this was removed from the complaint against him following discussion between lawyer Gerry Keenan and the Crown.

Fiscal depute Ms Scaife said: "Anticipating the accused's arrival, his mother had locked the doors and turned off the lights.

"He repeatedly banged on the front door, then made his way to the back door and repeatedly banged on that too.

"When the police arrived he began shouting and swearing at the officers, referring to them in derogatory terms and calling them 'horrible'."

Solicitor Mr Keenan told the court that his client, an able seaman, was on shore leave, had got drunk and didn't want to stay at his own flat because of recent vandalism in his neighbourhood.

Mr Keenan said: "He has a mortgage but it is in one of the less salubrious areas of the town.

"It was totally inappropriate behaviour towards the police when he saw which way the wind was blowing that night."

Sheriff Joseph Hughes deferred sentence until January 8 for a background report.