<\/p>\n
A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to murder a police officer after chasing him with a chainsaw.<\/p>\n Liridon Kastrati, 32, was convicted of brandishing the power tool at officers in Paisley, Renfrewshire, on 6 May 2024, having denied a single charge of attempting to murder four police officers.<\/p>\n The Albanian national used an expletive and described the judge and Scotland as “terrorist” when the sentence was passed. <\/p>\n Kastrati was earlier acquitted of charges of breach of the peace, stealing a car and driving offences after the prosecution withdrew the charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The judge had earlier told Kasrati: “In considering many incidents that I have over the years in Scotland, I have never encountered the use of a chainsaw as a weapon being wielded.<\/p>\n “Many might think that this was the stuff only of a horror film.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During a trial at the High Court in Paisley in November, PC Cowan said he was in a police car with a colleague when a Volkswagen driven by Kastrati crashed into the side of the vehicle and activated the airbag.<\/p>\n The court heard Kastrati got out of the driver’s side, looked at the police car and “began to run away”.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old officer said he approached Kastrati with the intention of arresting him.<\/p>\n But when he was “about 10 metres” away, the accused returned to his vehicle and got out a chainsaw before pursuing him while shouting obscenities.<\/p>\n PC Cowan recalled: “He was chasing after me with the chainsaw, holding the chainsaw up, running after me.”<\/p>\n He added: “I thought if I don’t create distance, he is going to kill me.”<\/p>\n The officer admitted he was “terrified” and believed Kastrati would “saw my arms off, chop my head off”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kastrati was arrested after the officers called for immediate assistance.<\/p>\n PC Cowan and his colleague, who were both injured in the initial crash, were treated by paramedics.<\/p>\n The court previously heard that Kastrati was arrested and questioned without either a solicitor or an Albanian interpreter present.<\/p>\n He repeatedly made reference to the collision being a “car accident” when charges were read to him.<\/p>\n Kastrati had been remanded in custody for 18 months since the crash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n John Scullion KC, defending, told the trial jury: “Mr Kastrati accepts he removed a chainsaw from the car, he swore, he injured PC Cowan, he brandished the chainsaw at other officers during this frightening and distressing incident. <\/p>\n “You must convict him of those parts.”<\/p>\n However, Mr Scullion claimed the police investigation was “flawed” and “lacked neutrality and objectivity”.<\/p>\n The jury returned a verdict after three hours of deliberation.<\/p>\n Det Insp Jan MacColl previously praised the “courage and determination” shown by the officers and a member of the public who helped to stop Kastrati. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n #Man #jailed #years #chainsaw #murder #bid #police #officer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CCTV shows the man brandishing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}