A man pointed an air pistol at other men before swinging the weapon around in an incident that was branded as “alarming” by a sheriff.

Callum Thomson, 27, from Govan, was sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court recently after pleading guilty to having an air pistol in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.

The court heard a member of the public had been walking her dog on Summertown Road in Govan at around 9pm on April 30, 2023, when she saw Thomson in the street.

She could hear Thomson shouting something and when she looked at him she saw him holding something towards other men and swinging it around.

Another member of the public saw Thomson acting erratically and in possession of a firearm. Thomson then said towards them “I’m not going to shoot you”.

Police were contacted and at around 9.45pm firearm officers attended.

Cops saw Thomson in possession of the weapon and told him to disarm himself and lay it on the ground.

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Thomson was then placed in handcuffs and searched. He was taken to Helen Street police office and was released on an undertaking to appear in court.

Sheriff Bernard Ablett questioned what the weapon was capable of discharging however the Procurator Fiscal did not have any information on this.

Thomson’s lawyer told the court that his client had found himself in this situation after drinking alcohol.

The defence solicitor said: “Officers found nothing else on his person. He was allowed liberty when sober later that night or the next morning.

“He found himself in that situation because of the volume of alcohol that he had consumed that day. He is an alcoholic but was proud to tell me this morning he is 35 days sober.

“He’s taking steps and has been obtaining the support he needs to step back from his alcohol misuse. He requires to be punished for this offence.

“He does state that he would undertake anything that provides structure to him.”

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Addressing Thomson, Sheriff Ablett branded the incident as “alarming”.

He said: “You were seen by the public and when you were pointing the pistol at the further males in the area, you were spinning it around.

“You discharged all of the pellets at the canal in possession of a bottle of vodka which you drank before you went onto Summertown Road.

“It’s inconceivable why anyone would go out into the community with any type of pistol even an air pistol, it must’ve been alarming.”

Sheriff Ablett placed Thomson on a community payback order with social work supervision for one year with a conduct requirement to attend addiction services.

Thomson was also tagged keeping him indoors between 7pm and 7am for 100 days.