A convicted murderer who spat at a prison officer following a disturbance has been jailed for eight months.
Alexander Wilson, 52, from Renton, will serve the jail time in tandem with his present life sentence.
Wilson was jailed at Edinburgh High Court in September, 2007, for murdering Thomas Taylor, 40, in Tontine Park, Renton, West Dunbartonshire, by stabbing him to death.
Wilson had been drinking cider and taking painkillers and tranquillisers before he stabbed Mr Taylor with a kitchen knife.
The victim staggered to his mother’s house and told her who had attacked him. He died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley.
The court was told at the time that Wilson had fallen out with a drug pusher who accused him of stealing £20 worth of heroin.
Mr Taylor, who was in no way involved in the dispute, suggested it might be an idea if Wilson “made himself scarce”.
In his latest offence, Wilson, who is serving his life sentence in Perth’s Edinburgh Road jail, admitted assaulting a prison officer on October 25, 2019.
Depute fiscal Michael Dunlop told Perth Sheriff Court last week that on the day of the offence, Wilson had caused a disturbance in his cell about 11.45am and had threatened officers.
He initially refused to calm down but eventually did.
They could hear him coughing phlegm into his mouth. And as the officers were closing his cell door, he turned and spat at one of them, “narrowly missing
him.”
Wilson’s lawyer said he has “a variety of serious health issues” and had been experiencing difficulties with his medical treatment in the prison.
He felt his concerns “weren’t being taken seriously enough”.
His lawyer asked that the sheriff deal with the assault in a way which wouldn’t “threaten” his potential release date.
His next parole board hearing has been fixed for July and he hoped to be moved to an open prison at Castle Huntly, the court heard.
Sheriff Neil Bowie described the incident as “particularly disgusting” but ordered the eight-month sentence to date from his court appearance last week.
