A SHERIFF this week questioned a specialist report which stated that a man who poured petrol over himself and threatened to set a health centre on fire does not pose a risk to the safety of others.
John McCarry was furious when Job Centre officials declared him fit to work and he learned his benefits would be stopped.
The 50-year-old poured a litre of petrol over his head and held the rest of a half-full plastic bottle in one hand and a lighter in the other in a doctor’s consulting room at Galashiels Health Centre in Currie Road on February 28.
Around 30 staff and patients were evacuated from the building after the alarm was raised.
A three-hour stand-off then followed before specially-trained police negotiators finally convinced McCarry to give up the bottle containing petrol and throw the lighter to the ground.
Selkirk Sheriff Court heard on Monday that a psychiatric report said that McCarry had a borderline personality disorder, but the author added he did not believe McCarry to be a risk to the safety of others.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond said he found it “difficult” to come to terms with that assessment.
Defence lawyer Mat Patrick said McCarry had been angry at being told his benefits were going to be stopped after being assessed as fit to work and did not know what he was going to do.
Sheriff Drummond retorted: “Getting a job comes to mind.”
Hearing McCarry, of Gorse Lane, Galashiels, had been in custody for the past 88 days, the sheriff decided to release him on bail after deferring sentence until June 24. He called for a Criminal Justice Social Work Report to be prepared, including what measures could be put in place to address McCarry’s behaviour.
McCarry pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace at the health centre at a previous hearing.