SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Sheriff Duff told Trainer:

“John Trainer, you pleaded guilty at the outset of your trial to a contravention of section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 where on 11 May 2024 you repeatedly shouted and swore and made offensive remarks to Sean Osborne, a neighbour. You refused to desist when requested to do so. You challenged people to fight, you uttered threats and adopted an aggressive stance.

I have only heard detail of that offence today.

I do note that although I only heard about that offence today, I did see Ring footage which captured the time before the police arrived. Your neighbours were standing around and one of them was carrying or holding a small dog. None appeared aggressive at all in the footage.

You have pleaded guilty to that offence. You could not have done otherwise.

You have admitted that your behaviour was aggravated by prejudice related to religion. In the Criminal Justice Social Work Report you claim that you do not hold “prejudiced beliefs”. Can I say, that in my experience, that is what all bigots including religious bigots say. You need to look at yourself and how your behaviour may impact your son and his view of the world.

You proceeded to trial on the remaining charges on the complaint, namely

- struggling violently with police officers in the execution of their duty;

- police assault of PC Menzies;

- police assault of PC Geildon-Bruce;

- a contravention of section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 by repeatedly shouting, swearing and uttering threats towards police officers and refusing to desist; and

- doing the same at Dunfermline Police Office.

You proceeded to trial on the basis of a preliminary plea that PC Menzies had entered your house unlawfully. You contended that, that being so, you were entitled to use reasonable force to resist the police officers.

I rejected your position.

In my view, PC Menzies was acting lawfully and was reacting as a responsible, measured and experienced officer would react to what he heard you saying and to what was happening. He heard you shout a threat to kill those on the street, and he saw your wife dragging you into your house. His concern was absolutely legitimate, and he acted on it as a responsible police officer should.

All PC Menzies did before you left the utility room was enter your house. He did not have time before your intense and immediate aggression towards him even to make a radio transmission.

A normal response would have been to ask the officer what he was doing in your house. You did not have a normal response. You were immediately intensely aggressive towards PC Menzies. Given the difference in height, PC Menzies being considerably taller than you, you were right in his chest, shouting abuse at him.

His colleague, PC Geildon-Bruce entered the house and saw your aggression towards his colleague.

Given what PC Menzies had seen and heard both outside and inside the house, he considered that you should be arrested. He told you that you were under arrest.

That clearly enraged you further and your conduct to those police officers became deranged.

What followed was terrifying for all of those officers. I want to note that this was a just after 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Those officers were on a dayshift. I have no doubt that they did not expect to experience the shocking level of aggression they experienced from you that afternoon. The officers were desperately trying to get you to calm down.

Your appalling conduct continued even when you were at the police station.

I have to decide on the sentence appropriate for your conduct having regard to the principles and purposes of sentencing. I have to have regard to the totality principal.

I consider that your conduct towards the police officers in charges 2-6, particularly charge 4 merits a custodial sentence.

I have to take into account your personal circumstances and the presumption against short sentences in reaching the sentence I consider to be appropriate in your case.

I take into account that you are 43 years of age and have no previous convictions. That you have been in full time employment for your entire adult life and that you are a husband and father.

I do note, with a lot of sadness, that your utterly appalling conduct took place in the presence of your young child. He watched your aggression to the neighbours and witnessed your conduct to police officers doing their lawful duty. Who knows what damage that caused your son. Your ongoing denial, a position that is shared by your wife, that you did nothing wrong in relation to the police and that the police entered your house unlawfully will no doubt add to the impact this incident has had on your young son.

I note there is no expression of anything towards the police officers in the Criminal Justice Social Work Report. There is no mention of them in what you say and not a single expression of remorse towards those officers. There is no expression of remorse that police officers were injured and that PC Geildon-Bruce was severely injured.

That tells me you express no remorse about the injury you inflicted on those officers.

As I said, I consider that your conduct towards the police officers merits a custodial sentence.

Men and women who work as police officers are doing the rest of us an enormous service. They put themselves in harm’s way to protect the rest of us. They acknowledge that they face aggression and danger in their day to day working life and they are generally prepared for that.

What PC Menzies faced when he entered your house, to deal with what he saw was an ongoing situation and a threat to a female from a male, was horrendous. As I said, this was a Saturday afternoon in Dunfermline. That officer saw a situation that needed his attention and without warning, he was facing an incredibly aggressive and volatile accused. Such was the distress of PC Menzies when faced with your intensely aggressive conduct, he didn’t radio any signal, he just radioed ‘we need help here’. That brought colleagues running into the house.

I have had regard to the principles and purposes of sentencing and the presumption against short sentences.

As I have said, your conduct and the offences in respect of which you have been found guilty absolutely merit a custodial sentence, but I have to have regard to other considerations including your previous good character and the impact any sentence I impose will have on others, particularly your young son.

For those reasons, and those reasons alone, I am not going to impose a custodial sentence.

Subject to your agreement, I intend to impose a cumulo sentence for all charges being a Community Payback Order with an order for unpaid work and a compensation requirement. I am giving you no discount for your plea in relation to charge 1. That plea was at trial and in my view had no utilitarian value.

The sentence is a community payback order with an order for 300 hours of unpaid work and a compensation requirement in the sum of £5000 to PC Geildon-Bruce.

You are required to complete the hours of unpaid work within 9 months. £3000 of the compensation is to be paid within 28 days. The remainder is to be paid at the rate of £150 per month under the supervision of your allocated Criminal Justice Social Worker.”

24 September 2025