FOLLOWING A recent court case in Edinburgh a woman has been found guilty of breach of the peace. 

Rebecca Mughal, 27, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for the crime against Dr Robert Wilkinson, a lecturer and associate dean at Napier University’s business school. 

Mughal was originally accused of violence, shouting and swearing and threatening to stab Dr Wilkinson with a hypodermic needle in the stairwell of his home in Lauriston Place, a street close to the University of Edinburgh’s George Square campus.

The court heard that in the two months preceding the incident Dr Wilkinson and his wife had become increasingly concerned at finding syringes and other drug paraphernalia in their common stair.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that as he was leaving his home on 13 May with his family Dr Wilkinson was threatened with a needle jab by Mughal, who was allegedly preparing to smoke heroin with a man in the stairwell.

Mughal underwent a medical examination at the time of the offence which showed no signs that she had been injecting drugs. Furthermore, she claimed in her own defence that since the birth of her son she had not injected heroin. 

Mughal was cleared on 29  August of threatening to stab Dr Wilkinson with a needle and she was also cleared of possessing an offensive weapon. However, Sheriff Derrick McIntyre’s verdict found Mughal guilty of breach of the peace. 

Murray Robertson, Mughal’s solicitor, urged Sheriff McIntyre not to jail Mughal. 

But, according to the Edinburgh Evening News, he accepted that “This behaviour is not acceptable, especially as there were young children in the vicinity.”

Mughal’s 15-month prison sentence was backdated to 15 May which is when she was arrested.