Scottish Catholic Observer

Stephen McKee, 45, was drunk when he entered the Shop Smart convenience store in Bank Street, Coatbridge, on July 30 and refused to leave when asked. He then fired off a barrage of verbal abuse in the shop and on the way to Coatbridge police station when he was arrested.

Mr McKee, of Auldhame Street, admitted both charges the day after the incident and sentence was deferred at Airdrie Sheriff Court for social work reports. He was back in court last week, when the procurator fiscal said he racially abused the shopkeeper and refused to leave the store even after the police arrived.

“The police then informed him he was under arrest and placed him in handcuffs before taking him to the police vehicle,” the fiscal said. “He then began shouting ‘Coatbridge police are all Catholic b******s’ and ‘you are all fenian b******s.’ This abuse continued to the police station.

Mr McKee’s defence solicitor Darran Khorasani said in mitigation: “My client is extremely embarrassed over his behaviour. He has little recollection of what happened but fully accepts no-one deserves to be spoken to in this manner.”

Passing sentence, Sheriff Frank Pieri told Mr McKee: “This is a very bad criminal justice social work report and this isn’t your first offence of this nature so I can only deal with this in one way. You will be sentenced to 140 days in prison on each of the two charges, which will run concurrently, and this sentence is backdated from July 31.”

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