A BORDERS man presented himself at a window with a knife when police came to arrest him, Selkirk Sheriff Court has been told.

Thirty-one-year-old Jay Gallagher, of Hawick, had earlier been involved in a disturbance after a woman rebuffed his advances and he became abusive towards her.

She telephoned the police at 5.30am but he continued to shout at her and the operator could hear the abusive comments.

But when police arrived at Gallagher's home he threatened them with violence and stood at the window with a knife.

Negotiators from a specialist team in Edinburgh were dispatched to the scene in order to clam Gallagher down and eventually he did leave the property and made no reply when cautioned and charged.

Gallagher was involved in another disturbance earlier in the year by being abusive towards a woman who had been smashing windows at his property and then started hurling homophobic and religious prejudice comments.

Gallagher pleaded guilty on indictment to four counts of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and a breach of bail conditions.

His lawyer said his client had been on remand since July 19 and because of a COVID outbreak at Edinburgh Prison had been locked down and in isolation for 23 hours a day with only one hour allowed for exercise.

Sheriff Peter Paterson imposed an 18 months Community Payback Order with supervision and attendance required at the Caledonian Men's Programme.

He was also given a home curfew between the hours of 7pm and 5am for the next five months.