Woman jailed for throwing microwave out of 10th floor flat window

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Lea Farquharson, 42, had rowed with her partner before he went out and as he came back into the building she chucked the oven from the living room in a bid to scare him.

Passing sentence Sheriff James Scott said: "I am satisfied no sentence other than a custodial sentence is appropriate given the gravity of the offence and the potential danger to the public.

"Somebody could have come out of the basement of the block of flats and it could have been disastrous."

At an earlier hearing fiscal depute Gerard Drugan said Farquharson and her then partner Allan Addison had been drinking at her flat when an argument broke out.

He said: "Mr Addison left to go to nearby shops leaving Farquharson within.

"As he was walking back towards the entrance to the block of flats he heard someone shout out his name.

"He looked up and saw Farquharson throwing the microwave out of her lounge window."

The court heard the item smashed metres from Mr Addison and he was uninjured.

Police were contacted and Farquharson was taken into custody.

Farquharson, of Cornton Vale Prison, admitted culpably and recklessly throwing a microwave oven out of a 10th floor window to the danger of the public on 27 June last year at Dunsyre House South, Calder Crescent, Edinburgh.

She also admitted breaching the peace there and in a police vehicle travelling to Wester Hailes Police Station, Edinburgh.

Mr Drugan said during a police interview Farquharson admitted throwing the microwave.

Reading from a statement she gave to police he said: "I went to the window to see if he was coming and I threw it out of the window.

"I didn't do it to hurt him, I did it to scare him.

"There was no one else there."

The fiscal added that Farquharson explained her behaviour as a "moment of madness" which was "influenced by drink".

Farquharson and Mr Addison are no longer in a relationship, the court heard.

Defence agent Stephen Knowles appealed to the sheriff to deal with Farquharson by community service and said she had been assessed as at a low-risk of re-offending.

He said the offences stemmed from excessive consumption of alcohol.

But the sheriff said custody was the only option and added her sentence would have been eight months but for the guilty plea.