Central Scotland News AgencyA kayak instructor has been fined after flying into a rage when he found a waterside toilet occupied.
Paul Richardson began hammering on the Loch Lomond lavatory and ranted, “Look at the s***e in there”, placing visitors in fear and alarm, Stirling Sheriff Court was told.
Richardson, who ran Paisley-based Calamity Kayaking, which operated kayak and paddleboarding lessons on Loch Lomond, had been camping at Milarrochy Bay on the east bank of the loch, the court heard.
Prosecutor Brooklyn Shaw said Richardson had been drinking in the run-up to the incident and had been seen to be becoming “increasingly more intoxicated and agitated”.
Ms Shaw said: “In the early hours of the morning, he got up to go to the toilet.
“Somebody was already inside, and he began knocking at the door.
“The occupier exited the toilet and the accused began shouting, ‘look at the s***e in there’.”
Richardson followed the toilet user as the man returned to his camper van.
Ms Shaw said: “The complainer entered his campervan and closed the door, but Mr Richardson opened it again and began shouting at him.
“He was shouting ‘where are you from?’ and called him a c**t several times.”
Ms Shaw said that a woman in another camper parked nearby “became alarmed” at Richardson’s behaviour. Richardson overheard her talking about him and knocked on her camper van.
He demanded: “Who are you talking to? Don’t be telling her stuff.”
Another woman tried to calm him down, but he was abusive to her as well.
Police were called, and Richardson was charged.
Richardson, 50, of Paisley, pleaded guilty to using threatening and abusive behaviour in the incident in the small hours of August 24 last year.
Allegations that he had actually tried to force the toilet open while the man was inside, and had caused damage to the tyres of multiple vehicles at the location, were dropped by the prosecution.
Richardson, who attended court in camouflage fatigues, is now said to be a Ukrainian army medic.
Solicitor Liam Runciman, defending, said: “Mr Richardson accepts his behaviour was totally unacceptable.
“He currently works as a medic in the Ukrainian Army, earning £2,000 a month, and is due to go back to Ukraine next week.
“He has a schedule of previous convictions, but he has been out of trouble for some time now, and he has nothing else outstanding.”
Sheriff Andrew Berry fined Richardson £470.
He told him: “You have a considerable number of previous convictions, some of them very serious.”
Leaving the court, Richardson refused to speak to a reporter.
In 2021, Richardson was banned from paddling up the Clyde during the COP26 climate summit, and told his canoes and kayaks would be seized if he got near the summit venue.
He also clashed with YouTube family The Inghams – who had 1.3 million subscribers – over their alleged non-use of buoyancy aids on Loch Lomond.
In 2022, he pleaded guilty and was fined for using threatening and abusive behaviour towards a pub customer smoking near the door of his close in Paisley.
Last year, the landlady of the pub concerned, the Old Swan, won a perpetual interdict against him, claiming he had made her life “a living hell”.
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