A violent offender was given early release from jail to become a neighbour from hell.
Stephen White spent his year of liberty by disturbing the lives of his new neighbours before viciously attacking a man who complained about the noise at 3am.
White jumped out of the window of his flat and headbutted his upstairs neighbour who had gone to confront him for the second time that night.
White, 36, was living at Kirkburn Drive, Cardenden at the time and later stayed in Main Street, Halbeath.
He appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for a trial.
He denied that on May 10 at Kirkburn Drive, he assaulted his neighbour by butting him to the head to his severe injury.
The victim told the court that he had problems with noise since White had moved into the flat below him a year earlier.
The man’s employment meant he had to be up at 6am and on the night in question his partner and two children were in the property.
There had been loud music and shouting at around 7pm and the neighbour spoke to White who turned it off at that time.
In the early hours of the morning, the racket started up again and the man went back downstairs.
He said White had jumped out of the window of his ground-floor flat and headbutted him. There was then a fight between the pair and the man was “covered in blood” when he returned home.
As he mopped up the blood with a towel, he saw that a tooth had been knocked out.
When White gave evidence, he claimed he had been the victim, with the neighbour grabbing him and pulling him out of the window before kicking him on the face seven or eight times.
Then the neighbour pulled out a Stanley knife and began stabbing him with the whole incident lasting up to 45 minutes, he insisted.
White also rejected the idea that the man’s tooth had been knocked out. He said the tooth was already missing.
He had then smashed his own window claiming he had been locked out.
He said he did not report the assault to police as “I didn’t want to get anyone into any trouble”.
He also made the comment: “This is all new to me,” despite him having a lengthy history of court appearances.
White’s tale was slammed by Sheriff Krista Johnston as “preposterous”.
She jailed him for a year. Looking through his record, she noted that he had previously been convicted for headbutting another victim and knocking his tooth out.
The court was told that White had been released on licence from a nine-year term but recalled to prison in May following this offence. He was due to be released again later this month.
In 2016, White was jailed for nine years at the High Court in Glasgow for a catalogue of offending against women including rape, attempted murder, indecent assault and assault.
White was also convicted at that time of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement of a male victim.
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