A BARRHEAD woman who attacked a shop worker by throwing bleach in his face and covering him in Shake ‘n’ Vac has been told to stay out of trouble – or end up in jail.

Taylor Sutherley, 20, assaulted William MacKay after being told to leave the store where he works.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard she “sprayed” bleach on Mr MacKay, causing it to hit his neck and back and land in his eye, before grabbing a tub of Shake ‘n’ Vac and pouring the cleaning product on him.

Sutherley also hurled a can of juice at her victim, striking him on the back, during the shocking incident at the Poundstretcher store in Barrhead.

The details first emerged last month when she appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing.
Sutherley, of John Street, pleaded guilty to three charges in exchange for three others being dropped.

She admitted assaulting Mr MacKay and his colleague Aiden King at the store on May 30 last year, as well as assaulting Ahmed Altaf and Farooq Sheikh at another shop in Barrhead on March 24 last year.

Charges that she had behaved in a threatening or abusive way, assaulted another shop worker and stolen a box of crisps from a Tesco store in the town in May 2018 were dropped.

Procurator fiscal depute Keri Marshall said the attack on the Poundstretcher workers took place at about 12.30pm on the day in question.

It was stated that Sutherley was asked to leave the store but refused and began throwing cans of juice around.

The court heard the earlier attack on Mr Altaf and Mr Sheik started with Sutherley stealing a bar of chocolate and ended with her threatening them with scissors, punching one of them and trying to hit the other with the weapon.

It was stated that Sutherley had been struggling with drug and solvent abuse at the time of the offences but had since been making an effort to turn her life around after being placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) in another case.

As he called for background reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing, Sheriff Tom McCartney continued Sutherley’s bail.

However, he told her offences such as the ones she had admitted “often result in a sentence of detention.”

When Sutherley returned to the dock last week to learn her fate, defence solicitor Michael McKeown said it would be better for society if she was spared jail.

Sheriff McCartney told Sutherley: “I have to say to you the nature of the offences here are such that, in almost all circumstances, the court would be likely to decide that a substantial period of detention, or prison, would be the only suitable sentence, so I’ve had to think very carefully about whether to impose that sentence today or not.”

He ordered her to comply with the CPO she is already on and stay out of trouble as he deferred sentence for good behaviour for another three months.

Sutherley is now set to learn her fate in April.