Man who spat on priest as orange walk passed church is jailed

Father Thomas White was targeted outside St Alphonsus Church in London Road, Glasgow, on July 7 last year, when he was speaking to parishioners.

Bradley Wallace, 24, from Uddingston in South Lanarkshire, admitted assaulting Father White – a charge aggravated by religious prejudice – when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month.

He was ordered to spend 10 months behind bars when he returned to the court for sentencing on Wednesday.

The court was told that Wallace, who was intoxicated with alcohol that day, accepts that his behaviour was “utterly reprehensible and quite frankly disgusting”.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Andrew Cubie said: “This is about the courts reflecting disapproval of the depressingly still deep-seated and widespread social issue of sectarianism which generates at the very least tension and at worst both hatred and conflict, and which disfigures civilised society.

“The courts in Scotland still deal all too frequently with cases of sectarian abuse which serve to harden and perpetuate divisions in society.”

He also told the offender: “In my view, this entire incident was not so much aggravated by as entirely motivated by, religious prejudice.”

The court heard how the assault happened amid a “grotesque spectacle” as the clergyman sought sanctuary in his own church to avoid the behaviour of a crowd outside, but he was unable to return to the…