A person has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for attempting to homicide a police officer after chasing him with a chainsaw.
Liridon Kastrati, 32, was convicted of brandishing the facility device at officers in Paisley, Renfrewshire, on 6 Might 2024, having denied a single cost of trying to homicide 4 law enforcement officials.
The Albanian nationwide used an expletive and described the choose and Scotland as “terrorist” when the sentence was handed.
Police Scotland mentioned the officer, PC Gary Cowan, was again at work after the “extraordinarily traumatic” incident.
The ten-year sentence was backdated to Might 2024.
Instantly after sentencing, Kastrati started banging on the dock and shouted at choose William Gallacher in Albanian.
Then in English, he used expletives and referred to as the choose a “terrorist”, including “your nation” is a “terrorist”, earlier than being led away by guards.
The choose had earlier described Kasrati’s behaviour – chasing Cowan down the road for a “important” distance whereas revving the chainsaw – as “critically alarming”.
“PC Cowan thought that if he didn’t get away from you that you’d chop off his limbs and kill him,” he mentioned.
“It was apparent that you just have been in scorching pursuit wielding a lethal weapon and confirmed little regard to something or anybody else apart from PC Cowan.
“In contemplating many incidents that I’ve through the years in Scotland, I’ve by no means encountered using a chainsaw as a weapon being wielded.
“Many may assume that this was the stuff solely of a horror movie.”
He mentioned a lot of the incident was caught on CCTV or cell phone footage and Kastrati had been intent on inflicting “catastrophic” hurt earlier than Cowan’s colleagues arrived on the scene and helped to apprehend him.
Decide Gallacher mentioned: “Your behaviour brought on important hurt however the potential may have been far worse.
“If PC Cowan had not been capable of run quick sufficient or if he had stumbled and fell, the scene may have been certainly one of carnage.”
The courtroom beforehand heard that Kastrati was arrested and questioned with out both a solicitor or an Albanian interpreter current.
He repeatedly made reference to the collision being a “automobile accident” when costs have been learn to him.
Kastrati had been remanded in custody for 18 months because the crash.
Throughout a trial on the Excessive Courtroom in Paisley in November, Cowan mentioned he was in a police automobile with a colleague when a Volkswagen pushed by Kastrati crashed into the facet of the automobile and activated the airbag.
The courtroom heard Kastrati received out of the motive force’s facet, seemed on the police automobile and “started to run away”.
The 35-year-old officer mentioned he approached Kastrati with the intention of arresting him.
However when he was “about 10m” away, the accused returned to his automobile and received out a chainsaw earlier than pursuing him whereas shouting obscenities.
Cowan recalled: “He was chasing after me with the chainsaw, holding the chainsaw up, working after me.”
He added: “I assumed if I do not create distance, he’s going to kill me.”
The officer admitted he was “terrified” and believed Kastrati would “noticed my arms off, chop my head off”.
‘Braveness’ of officers
Kastrati was arrested after the officers referred to as for rapid help.
Cowan and his colleague, who have been each injured within the preliminary crash, have been handled by paramedics.
John Scullion KC, defending, advised the trial jury: “Mr Kastrati accepts he eliminated a chainsaw from the automobile, he swore, he injured PC Cowan, he brandished the chainsaw at different officers throughout this horrifying and distressing incident.
“You need to convict him of these elements.”
Nevertheless, Scullion claimed the police investigation was “flawed” and “lacked neutrality and objectivity”.
The jury returned a verdict after three hours of deliberation.
Talking after the sentence, Ch Supt Rhona Fraser, Police Scotland’s divisional commander for Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, mentioned Cowan was again at work and doing effectively after the “extraordinarily traumatic” incident.
“It was a really harrowing expertise and my ideas stay with the officer simply now,” she mentioned.
“I need to acknowledge the braveness proven by our officers.
“Their decisive actions, and people of an equally courageous member of the general public, rapidly stopped Kastrati and contained the menace he posed.
“Each officer has the elemental proper to return house from every shift unhurt.
“They have been merely doing their job and this isn’t one thing they need to need to face.”
Kastrati was earlier acquitted of costs of breach of the peace, stealing a automobile and driving offences after the prosecution withdrew the fees.
