AN ALLOA man who threatened to kill police officers while firing an air rifle from the window of his house has been told to expect a “substantial” period in custody.

Jordan Conway admitted discharging the firearm, and brandishing several other weapons, during an armed stand-off with cops earlier this year.

At around 2am on 31 March, police were called out to an ongoing “disturbance” at a property in Bowhouse Gardens, Alloa.

They soon became embroiled in negotiations with the two occupants who were refusing to come out.

Conway then brandished a small arsenal of weapons in an effort to keep officers from his door during a nine-hour stand-off.

As many as eight police units were spotted in and around the area, along with an ambulance incident response unit.

The area was cordoned off until around 11am when The 24-year-old was plugged with a taser and arrested by police.

He then appeared at Alloa Sheriff Court the following afternoon and has remained in custody since.

His case was due to go to trial on Monday (24 August) but his defence team negotiated a plea with the procurator fiscal.

Conway has previously spent two periods of detention as a youngster, the last of which was imposed in 2011 for a repeated breach of a community payback order.

In 2007, he was given 20 months’ at Polmont for one charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement and another of assault to severe injury.

He was locked up again in 2011 for breaching two CPOs — one imposed for assault and the other for carrying an offensive weapon.

An order banning him from possessing a firearm for five years was also imposed on his release.

During Monday’s hearing, Conway pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace, while the Crown accepted not guilty pleas for a separate charge of culpable and reckless discharge of a firearm and breaching the ban on possessing a firearm.

He admitted shouting, swearing, uttering threats of violence, brandishing a hammer, striking a window there with said hammer, and throwing glass from the window.

He then brandished a pickaxe, repeatedly threatened to kill himself, before brandishing an air rifle out of the window and discharging said weapon.

Conway then repeatedly threatened to kill police officers during the incident and did “present” his air rifle through his letterbox, before uttering further threats of violence and brandishing a dumbbell weight.

The Crown accepted a not guilty plea on the charge that he discharged the air rifle into Bowhouse Gardens, where police and members of the public were present, “to the risk of injury to officers and to the distress of the public”.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner then moved for sentencing and Sheriff Christopher Shead called for criminal justice social work reports to be carried out.

The defence then asked for Conway to be released while the reports were being compiled; however, Sheriff Shead denied the request.

He told Conway: “I’ve considered everything that has been said today, and I have to take into account your extensive record and the fact the charge you have now plead guilty to is a serious one.

“The court considers that the most likely disposal is a substantial custodial sentence and for that reason I do not feel it appropriate to admit you to bail.” The Crown also made a motion for forfeiture of Conway’s air rifle, along with canisters and ball bearings, which was not opposed by the defence.

The accused will return to Alloa Sheriff Court at the end of next month for sentencing.