A VIOLENT offender who threatened someone after being released from custody was told he would not be going back to prison last week.

James Hill – who was once likened to "The Terminator" by a prosecutor – was in the dock for sentencing at Alloa Sheriff Court on Thursday, July 25.

He previously pleaded guilty to sending threatening messages to another man between April 8 and 9 this year.

He also admitted failing to appear in court while on an undertaking on May 9, and had been remanded in custody since May 27.

Hill was previously locked up in 2017, after entering a store in Alloa with his face covered and demanding money from the shopkeeper.

He later claimed he had been "joking", but ended up being jailed for 10 months for breach of the peace.

The following year, he was walking down the street in Sauchie when he was stopped by police, who then searched him for drugs.

After the six-foot-four-inch brute put up a "lengthy struggle," police discovered he was carrying an eight-inch knife.

Despite initially arguing he was on his way to put it in the bin, Hill later pleaded guilty to carrying the blade in public and resisting arrest.

He was handed a two-year custodial sentence for that incident.

And Alloa Sheriff Court heard last week that his latest offences were committed "very soon" after he had been released from custody.

But Sheriff David Mackie said he would not send Hill back behind bars again.

He said: "I'm much more interested in getting you back into society and functioning, so I'm not going to send you to prison.

"I take account of the fact you've been on remand for four months."

He then gave Hill, of Talisker in Tullibody, a community payback order with 12 months supervision.