TWO MORAY MEN admitted brandishing weapons and uttering threats of violence at a traveller’s camp when they appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court on Thursday.
Robert Clark, 46, and Mark Stewart, 20, arrived at The Pines near Lhanbryde brandishing axes and spades on Sunday, October 18.
The court learned that there had been tension between rival factions ahead of the incident, with Fiscal depute Ruaraidh McAlister saying that they brandished axes and spades while making threats.
Police were called and when they located the pair they noted the axes and spades a short distance away.
In Clark’s defence solicitor Robert Cruickshank said that his client’s initial intention was to go to the site to stop there being any trouble – but accepted that matters escalated. Stewart’s agent Matthew O’Neill pointed out that his client was a first offender who had learned a strong lesson from the experience.
Both accused, whose addresses were given as being in Elgin, admitted charges of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner and uttering threats of violence while wielding axes and spades.
Clark, who has a lengthy criminal record and had been on remand since October 20 was sentenced to four months in jail backdated to that date. Sentence on Stewart was deferred for six months.