Knife killer threatened to stab cops
A FORMER Beattock man who killed his best pal threatened to stab police officers when he was found lying drunk in a street at the weekend.Steven Herdsman could now be sent back to prison to serve the rest of the sentence he received for culpable homicide.
In 2009 Herdsman – now of Morven Avenue, Kilmarnock – was given a six-year jail term after he admitted killing his pal, Kris Kendrick, in a row over a girl.
The judge also ordered that he should be kept under supervision for a further three years following his custodial sentence.
But on Monday, Herdsman, now 24, appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court where he pleaded guilty to acting in a threatening or abusive manner in Lainshaw Street, Kilmarnock, on August 11.
Isobel Vincent, prosecuting, said that police were in the street around 2.30am in relation to another matter when they saw Herdsman lying on the ground.
She said: “They were concerned for his safety and tried to speak with him.
“He smelled strongly of alcohol and was slurring his speech.”
Herdsman told the officers: “I will kill you all. The first person to touch me is getting stabbed.”
He was warned about his conduct and told to move on.
But, after walking 100 metres along the road, he again lay down in the street and went to sleep.
When he was roused, he told police: “I will kill you all.”
Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane noted that Herdsman was still subject to an extended sentence and remitted the case for the High Court to consider whether he should be returned to prison to serve the remainder of the sentence.
She deferred sentence on the new offence until September 11.
Herdsman was remanded in custody.
Sheriff McFarlane said that his remarks to the police were “unfortunate”, given his previous conviction.
Herdsman, formerly of Smiths Way in Beattock, stabbed Mr Kendrick through the heart in a drink and drug-fuelled rage in August 2008 after struggling and fighting with him and striking him with the knife at Craigielands Park in the village.
He told police who detained him after the attack: “I just swung a punch and I forgot I had a knife in my hand.”
Originally charged with murder, he pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
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