Neighbour from hell threatened to stab council man in eye

Oct 9 2008

A MAN who threatened two council staff with a 10-inch knife will be sentenced later this month.

Patrick Latta, who admitted a breach of the peace, lived in a South Lanarkshire Council flat in Hamilton’s Warren Road.

Neighbours suspected that the 45-year-old, who has a conviction for drugs possession, was dealing from the upper-floor property.

Their concerns were passed on to the council who earlier this year began steps to remove the tenancy from Latta.

Steel shutters were placed over the doors and windows and the flat was alarmed.

Latta, who now lives at 56 School Street, Hamilton, and walks with a stick, demanded access to the property to recover prescribed medication.

He was accompanied to the flat by two members of the council’s antisocial neighbour investigation team: ex-cops Lindsay Allan (58) and 61-year-old Hugh Rankin.

During the visit, on August 11, Latta became aggressive and threatened Mr Rankin with a walking stick.

He also made angry comments directed at his neighbours before lifting a screwdriver and telling Mr Allan: “I will stab you in the eye, you b******.”

Latta put the screwdriver down and found the medicine he said he was looking for.

He then said he wanted to collect correspondence delivered to the house and went towards a window.

He picked up a large kitchen knife, with a 10-inch blade, from the floor and swung round towards Mr Allan.

Mr Allan grabbed Latta’s arm and his colleague was able to prise the knife from his fingers.

Latta was escorted from the house and, despite his apparent infirmity, chased the two council staff down the street as they drove away from the scene.

The ‘hell neighbour’ investigators reported the incident to police and on August 15 at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Latta admitted threatening the two men, placing them in a state of fear and alarm, and brandishing a walking stick, screwdriver and knife.

Sentence was deferred until October 22 for reports and Latta was granted bail.

He has a lengthy criminal record including convictions for theft, assault and robbery, attempting to pervert the course of justice, and contraventions of the Firearms Act and Misuse of Drugs Act.

The news that he had now moved out was welcomed by one of the councillor’s for the area, Brian McCaig.

He added: “People in the street are over the moon because this man was the subject of complaints all the time.

“There are a lot of elderly people living in that area and they were fed up with the types that he was attracting to the street.

“You would get youths sitting on their stairs in the close smoking ‘wacky baccy’ and people were genuinely frightened of walking past them.”

Joe Lowe, also a Hamilton South councillor, endorsed councillor McCaig’s remarks and added: “People don’t have the right to tear communities apart but that is what is happening in some areas.

“We have won this case but there are people who are getting houses who shouldn’t even be given a tent because of the way they carry on.

“There are many decent people who are homeless but we don’t get the chance to help them because the wrong people are getting the houses.

“It is time the Scottish Government and MSPs gave councils a stronger voice in the way houses are allocated.”