Kaiser gets banned for life from city centre

THE man known as Edinburgh's "King of the Beggars" has been banned for life from streets in the city centre after terrorising shoppers and store workers.

John "Kaiser" McKay is the first person in Edinburgh and one of the first in Scotland to be served with a lifetime Antisocial Behaviour Order.

The 49-year-old has been jailed twice in the past year for breaking an interim order banning him from parts of the New Town. Now a court has granted the unprecedented lifetime order against the ex-convict amid fears McKay will never be rehabilitated.

The aggressive beggar faces automatic arrest and prison if he enters Princes Street, Rose Street, or Castle Street. He is also banned from shouting and swearing in and around the bus station at St Andrew Square.

Over the years, McKay has built up a notorious reputation for repeatedly assaulting and threatening store and restaurant staff, shoppers, residents and tourists in the city centre. He has also attacked police and paramedics and hurled racist abuse at passers-by. In 1998, McKay was sentenced to five years in jail for a vicious bottle attack at The Mound, which left his victim with a gaping eight-centimetre neck wound.

Police and council chiefs built up a dossier of violence and disorder carried out by McKay, whose infamy earned him the nicknames of "Kaiser" and "King of the Beggars", reflecting his status among the city's street drinkers and beggars.

Today Sheila Gilmore, the councillor in charge of tackling antisocial behaviour in Edinburgh, said: "Mr McKay's violent and threatening behaviour is not only completely unacceptable but it has made people fearful for their safety."

The Asbo was granted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in the absence of McKay, of no fixed address, who failed to turn up for the hearing.

The order was granted for an unlimited time, where other Asbos have been granted for restricted periods, typically two years.

Chief Inspector Willie Wills said: "This individual is well-known for making tourists and residents' lives a misery.

"We hope this will go some way to improving the lives of people in the city centre."

McKay ended up behind bars just days after the interim order was served on him on December 21 last year. He was jailed for two months for breaking the order, after threatening bus station staff who tried to stop him drinking, saying: "You are dead when you leave tonight, I know you finish at 10pm."

He was admonished at Edinburgh Sheriff Court shortly after his release for violating the order on February 28 before being jailed again for 40 days for a further breach on April 8.

McKay has numerous convictions, chiefly for assault and breach of the peace, and has spent his life in and out of young offenders' institutions and prison since his teens. He also had a serious problem with alcohol, which one expert predicted would kill him if he did not change his lifestyle.

Tam Hendry, chief executive of city-based homeless charity Streetwork UK, said: "Asbos can be effective short-term answers to difficult problems, but they are never intended to be long-term solutions. Ultimately, we have to take responsibility to help people change and that means working with them in the community, not simply shortening the time they spend out of jail."

A famous Evening News photograph pictured him in the late 1990s begging with his partner Hazel Mathieson's six-year-old son and urinating on the side of the Royal Scottish Academy on The Mound. The picture sparked calls for tougher action against aggressive beggars who plague people with abuse.