A CONVICTED sex offender has been jailed for six months after shouting abuse at his elderly mother and challenging his brother to a fight in the street while brandishing a stick.

John Copperthwaite appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week for sentencing on three separate matters.

The 45-year-old, from Lynn Avenue in Dalry, was admonished on a charge of failing to notify police within three days of his release from HMP Kilmarnock in December, having been convicted in September 2018 of two offences and placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Copperthwaite and another man were also listed in court papers as having stolen more than £45 worth of meat and sandwiches from Dalry Co-op on May 20 last year, while both men also pleaded guilty to taking almost £30 worth of medicines from the Boots in Kilbirnie on June 23, 2021.

Finally, on July 9 last year, Copperthwaite was found to have behaved in a threatening or abusive manner by repeatedly shouting and swearing at his 76-year-old mother and brother in Borestone Avenue, Kilbirnie.

Last Tuesday’s hearing was told that the accused had been asked to leave his mother’s property due to him being under the influence.

The procurator fiscal depute said: “He began shouting and swearing at his mother. His brother was within the home and heard the shouting from outside and asked the accused to apologise.

“He continued to shout and then left the front garden gate, disappearing from view. Some time later the accused returned holding a piece of wood in his right hand, shouting that he was going to burn the house down.”

Sheriff Murdoch MacTaggart said he had been left with “no alternative” but to jail him.