A man directed sectarian comments at police officers and threatened to kill them during a drunken disturbance in the Borders in the summer.
Dean Campbell, 39, pleaded guilty to committing that offence near his Bridge Street home in Galashiels and at the Borders General Hospital in Melrose.
Selkirk Sheriff Court was told he was shouting and swearing in the hospital’s accident-and-emergency department on May 10 and was singing the 1920s loyalist chant Billy Boys, originally a signature tune for Protestant street gangs but latterly adopted by fans of the city’s Rangers football club, as well as threatening the officers.
Sheriff Peter Paterson said he was not prepared to accept Campbell’s bigotry and called for the production of a criminal justice social work report and a restriction-of-liberty order assessment.
Sentence was deferred until December 4.