A MAN has been given three months to prove his good behaviour after sticking up for his sister against anti-social neighbours landed him in court.

Gerald Johnstone had been out drinking with his sibling, Angela Louden, before the pair returned to her home in Irvine's Barra Crescent on January 21 this year.

At Kilmarnock Sheriff last week, Johnstone, 57, admitted repeatedly striking and kicking the door of Ms Louden's neighbours' property during a disturbance in the early hours of the morning.

He also pleaded guilty to shouting, swearing, uttering threats and transphobic remarks and placing the man and woman through the wall in a state of fear and alarm.

Ms Louden, 54, had joined her brother in the dock as a co-accused but her not guilty plea to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner was accepted by the Crown.

The court heard that Ms Louden and the complainers had been neighbours for around six months at the time of the incident.

At around 2am on January 21, the complainers were trying to get to sleep but were unable to do so due to loud noise and banging from the home next door, where the accused was visiting his sister.

The procurator fiscal depute said: "They [complainers] banged on the wall to alert them to the noise.

"The accused shouted through the wall towards the complainers.

"Within a minute the accused was within the front garden of their property and kicked the front door and shouted: 'I will kick your f*****g c**t in.'

"He also shouted: 'Come down and talk to me like a f*****g man.'

"The complainer recorded the incident on her mobile phone and contacted police."

Police attended around half an hour later, cautioned and charged Johnstone and he replied: "Hands up, I did do that, I'm not going to lie."

His defence solicitor told Thursday's (February 16) hearing that it was the complainers who had been banging on the wall and shouting, and Johnstone had had enough of their behaviour which had been making his sister's "life difficult for a long time".

The solicitor said: "They are no longer neighbours. The complainers have since been evicted due to anti-social behaviour.

"Ms Louden made various complaints to the local authority and Mr Johnstone was aware of the stress that the neighbours had been causing his sister.

"He wanted to stand up for his sister, he had had enough.

"His sister is a nursing assistant and she would sometimes be afraid to leave her house in the early morning because she would bump into them and be abused.

"This was a one-off incident where alcohol was involved and emotions were running high.

"He went about it the wrong way."

Sheriff Sheena Fraser deferred sentence until the end of May to allow Johnstone, of Pollok in Glasgow, to "demonstrate that you are not normally a man who would behave in this fashion".