Drug-crazed yob climbs house, breaks into attic, sets fire to bedroom then leaps out of window

A DRUG-crazed thug scaled the outside of a house, broke in through a skylight, woke the occupants by running around the attic then started a blaze in a bedroom before leaping out of a window.

Calum Paterson, 26, had taken an “unknown quantity” of MDMA while out with a friend before going on his bizarre rampage.

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He first shinned up a drainpipe on to the roof of the house in Dunfermline — which belonged to complete strangers — then forced his way into the attic via a Perspex skylight, prompting his pal to call police.

Fiscal depute Beverly Adam told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: “The occupants were asleep in the front bedroom but were awoken by the disturbance of the accused walking in the attic.

“They heard him climb down to the upper hallway. He was confronted by the male occupant while the female hid in bed.

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“He appeared incoherent and was escorted to the front door and told to leave.”

But the court heard Paterson, also from the Fife town, grabbed the door key, locked the door and fled to a bedroom where he set fire to a book.

Cops could smell the smoke when they arrived and forced their way into the room where the carpet was on fire.

Paterson fled out of a window onto the roof of a single storey extension and jumped into the garden and fled.

Ms Adam told the court: “One officer pursued while another tackled the fire, which was emitting dense smoke.

Paterson appeared incoherent and was escorted to the front door and told to leave

Fiscal depute Beverly Adam

“The accused scaled several walls and fences as he fled.

“He was then apprehended.”

Paterson, 26, of Dunfermline, pleaded guilty on to behaving in a threatening and abusive manner, wilful fireraising and resisting arrest on September 27 last year.

Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist QC deferred sentence until later this month for social work background reports and Paterson was released on bail.