Thug pleads for jail term

A THUG who abused accident and emergency nurses begged a sheriff to send him to jail yesterday.

When Sheriff Douglas Kinloch deferred sentence for background reports, Mark Paterson, 43, raged: "No, I want a custodial sentence. Give me ten years, I don't care."

When his plea from the dock was ignored, the accused erupted into violence, and had to be restrained by four Reliance security guards.

Paterson, from Blackburn, West Lothian, pleaded guilty to committing a breach at St John's Hospital in Livingston on Thursday evening.