Machete-wielding dad spat in cop's mouth

Sheriff Kenneth McGowan told 48-year-old Ronald Stone: “This was a very disturbing incident which could have turned out to be worse. Given the weapons in this case, a significant jail sentence is appropriate.”

Stone, a prisoner in Saughton, had pleaded guilty to assaulting his daughter, Samantha Pace, and her friend, Robert McInnes, in a house in Coxfield Lane, Gorgie, on April 1 and assaulting Pc Gordon Dempster.

He was sentenced yesterday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Lewis Crosbie said Ms Pace and Mr McInnes, along with Stone, were going to Ms Pace’s home when Stone bought a bottle of vodka and drank it on the way there.

An argument began when Ms Pace condemned her father’s drinking. Not wanting the neighbours to become involved, she invited him into the house to let him calm down.

Mr Crosbie said Stone lunged at his daughter, who fell to the ground, and head-butted Mr McInnes when he tried to intervene. Stone then went into the kitchen and armed himself with a hunting knife.

Mr Crosbie said: “He brandished it at McInnes and said, ‘I’m going to kill you’.”

He then lunged at him with the knife and when his daughter tried to intervene, she was struck with the knife and grabbed by the throat.

In a bizarre twist, Ms Pace’s dog tried to bite Stone as he held the knife to its throat.

Ms Pace and Mr McInnes locked themselves in a bedroom and dialled 999. Stone then repeatedly struck the bedroom door with a machete.

When the police arrived and tried to restrain Stone, he spat into the mouth of Pc Dempster, telling him, ‘Ha, you’ve got the virus now’.

Mr Crosbie said the officer had to undergo tests, but there was no evidence of Stone having any infection.

Defence solicitor advocate Vincent Belmonte said Ms Pace was “a concerned daughter” and tried to stop her father buying any alcohol.

Mr Belmonte said his client had suffered head injuries in the past and was in constant pain. Doctors had refused to give him the medicine he thought he should have, so he relieved his pain with alcohol and drugs.

Mr Belmonte said: “He has no recollection of the incident. He is very sorry and wants to make it up with his daughter, but that might be difficult.”

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