Man who lunged at police officers with garden fork in Bannockburn jailed

A thief who lunged at police officers with a garden fork, screaming, “I’ll stab you both, you scumbags”, has been jailed for 41 months.

William Marshall, 41, “took up a fighting stance, holding the fork in his right hand” after the officers – asked to track him down – found him sitting in a summer house in the back garden of a property in Station Road, Bannockburn.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard that on April 19, 2025, at around 11.45pm, as officers approached, Marshall stood up and opened the summer house door, shouting and swearing.

PC Connor Ramsay-Clapham drew his baton and ordered Marshall to drop the fork.

Prosecutor Stuart Asher said: “The accused pointed the fork towards him and lunged at him, saying, ‘I’ll f***ing stab you both, you scumbags’.

“PC Ramsay-Clapham moved away from him while the accused continued lunging towards him.”

As Marshall lifted the fork up and moved towards PC Ramsay-Clapham again, police constable Max Vickerman used her baton to strike him three times.

Mr Asher said the third strike was to his hand, causing him to drop the fork and retreat into the summer house, where PC Ramsay-Clapham restrained him on a sofa.

Marshall continued to make abusive comments, while spitting, with gobs landing on PC Ramsay-Clapham’s neck, ear and shoulder.

PC Vickerman managed to handcuff him, and other officers arrived to assist. On the way to Dunfermline Police Station in a police van, Marshall told PC Ramsay-Clapham: “Lucky I didn’t shank you with that fork.

“I wish I’d stabbed that fork in your neck…”

He then started spitting again, claiming to have Hepatitis C and telling cops they would contract the virus.

Marshall was later cautioned and charged, and made no reply.

Mr Asher said PC Ramsay-Clapham was uninjured by the assault and was able to continue his shift.

But he added: “Due to the accused’s conduct, arresting officers had to deal with him for a prolonged time, taking police resources away from other incidents which they could not attend.”

Appearing at Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday, January 14, by video link from Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison, Marshall, of Falkirk, formerly of Stirling, pled guilty to police assault and statutory breach of the peace.

He also admitted assaulting and robbing a shopkeeper three days earlier at the Key Store in Newmarket, Bannockburn, and assaulting and attempting to rob a 60-year-old man of his rucksack on a bus in nearby Cowie.

Describing the Key Store incident, Mr Asher, the depute fiscal, said Marshall entered the shop at around 7.50pm, asked about the price of drink, left, then returned, and pushed the shopkeeper, behaving “very aggressively”.

Mr Asher said he demanded money before he “grabbed multiple packets of cigarettes and vapes, stuffing them down his trousers”.

He demanded “20” and told the shopkeeper, who was behind the counter: “Give it to me or I’ll put it in you.”

Mr Asher said: “[The shopkeeper] saw the accused put his hand in his trouser pocket, which alarmed him, although he did not see any knife.”

A customer entered the store and Marshall left.

As he did so he shouted, “Don’t call me a f***ing bam, I’m a robber.”

Mr Asher said: “[The shopkeeper] was not injured but was very scared by his behaviour, particularly the suggestion of a knife.”

Solicitor Virgil Crawford said Marshall had been “under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs” at the time of the incidents, and the robbery and attempted robbery had been committed “with a view to feeding these addictions”.

Imposing the jail term, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony said Marshall had a record of previous convictions dating back to 2006 and running to six pages.

He said custody was the only possible sentence.