Drug addict cleared of threatening to stab lecturer with needle

A WOMAN has been cleared of threatening to stab a university lecturer with a hypodermic needle.

But Rebecca Mughal was sentenced to 15 months in prison after a jury found her guilty of breach of the peace.

Robert Wilkinson had claimed that Mughal, 27, had issued the threat after confronting her in his common stairwell as she and a friend were preparing to smoke heroin.

The 43-year-old business lecturer said Mughal pointed a needle at him after telling him they were "shooting up."

Dr Wilkinson's two children were at home during the incident, and he told the court that he had become increasingly concerned at finding drug paraphernalia since he moved into his home with his family.

But Mughal claimed she had not injected heroin since the birth of her son and a joint submission from prosecutors and her defence lawyer confirmed that a medical exam at the time of the offence showed no sign of injecting.

During her evidence Mughal did admit she had gone to the stairwell to take heroin. She said she would probably have referred to this as smack but denied she said she had been "shooting up."

The heroin addict admitted she had been "sick" from withdrawal symptoms and had argued with Dr Wilkinson.

The jury maintained that Mughal had acted in a disorderly manner by shouting and swearing outside Dr Wilkinson's Lauriston Place home in Edinburgh.

But they cleared her of another charge of possessing an offensive weapon – the alleged syringe.

Following the verdict today, her solicitor, Murray Roberston, urged Sheriff Derrick McIntyre not to jail her.

He said: "The matter is much less serious than it was previously, particularly given the deletions and I would ask that your lordship be as lenient as possible."

But Sheriff McIntyre insisted: "This behaviour is not acceptable, especially as there were young children in the vicinity."

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court he sentenced Mughal, who appeared from custody, to 15 months in prison, backdated to May 15 when she was arrested following the outburst.