Man who made chilling threat to police is jailed

[Nwicker60]

Eight months sentence for Orcadian

WICK Sheriff Court heard today of the ‘chilling’ threat Carl Howley made to police officers.
He told them they would suffer the same fate as Constable David Rathband, who was shot and blinded by Raul Moat in Newcastle, in 2010.
The threat, made at Kirkwall police station, October 27... only 10 days after Orcadian Howley was released on bail, led to him being jailed for eight months, today, by Sheriff Andrew Berry who described it as ‘outrageous’
Howley, 28, of Yetholm, St Margaret’s Hope, admitted threatening or abusive behaviour and an extensive record.
The court heard that he made the threat after being detained at Kirkwall police station on an unrelated matter.
David Barclay prosecuting said: “While being processed, Howley made a comment to two officers that his intentions towards them would be the same as those of Raul Moat”.
Mr Barclay added that Howley had originally appeared at Kirkwall Sheriff Court but it had been transferred to Wick because of an unfinished matter involving the Caithness court.
Solicitor Neil Wilson said the threat had been an idle one, “nothing more than that”.
Mr Wilson revealed that the accused who was seeking help for a drink addiction which had replaced an heroin habit had spent eight years of the last 12, in prison and added: “He realises the way he behaves is inappropriate and that he is drinking himself into an early grave.”
The solicitor made a plea to the sheriff to give Howley a chance with through a community-based sentence which would allow him to address his alcoholism, back in Kirkwall.
However, the plea was rejected by Sheriff Berry who said: “The threat you made was outrageous, unforegivable and chilling. You have a truly appalling record of offending and the only appropriate sentence I can impose is imprisonment.”
The sentence was backdated to the time Howley's arrest.
*Constable Rathband who was sitting in his patrol car in Newcastle when he was shot at point blank range by Moat who was the subject of a manhunt, but survived. However, the constable was found dead at his home in Blyth at the end of February, this year. A police spokesman said, at the time, that they were not looking for anyone in connection with the tragedy.