A MAN who failed to show up at a court-ordered meeting with a social worker, after he alarmed his partner and a three-year-old girl at a house in Helensburgh, has been given a “very last chance” to stay out of prison.

Stephen Alderton, 25, was granted bail at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after he admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive way in Buchanan Road, Kirkmichael on May 5 last year.

But one of the bail conditions required Alderton to co-operate fully with the preparation of a background report by a social worker – and a hearing at the same court on Friday was told that Alderton had failed to turn up at an appointment.

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Sheriff Maxwell Hendry noted during the January 17 hearing that it was the second time Alderton had appeared in court when a report should have been available but was not.

Edel McGinty, defending, told the court there had been confusion around Alderton’s move from the Buchanan Road property to a new address in Lennox Street, Renton.

She told the court the move had been intimated to the court on Alderton’s previous appearance, on December 20, but not provided to social workers.

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Ms McGinty also said Alderton had been unclear whether the report was to be written by a social worker in Helensburgh, working for Argyll and Bute Council, or one in West Dunbartonshire.

Deferring sentence until February 11 for the reports previously ordered, Sheriff Hendry said: “Although I’m giving him one last chance, it’s going to be his very last chance.”

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