A DRUNK Tranent man does not know why he repeatedly headbutted the inside of a police van after being arrested for being disorderly last Boxing Day, a court has heard.

Kevin Inverarity turned up at his parents’ home in Musselburgh in an intoxicated state and was soon told to leave the property.

Inverarity agreed to leave but took a bottle of vodka with him and ended up standing in the middle of the road at the town’s Goosegreen area and was seen to be waving his arms in the air.

Inverarity then called the police himself to tell them he wanted “to end himself” and when officers arrived at the scene they found him still in the road.

The offender was then said to have attempted to open the back of the police van as “he wanted to sit down”.

But as officers attempted to speak to him, he offered no explanation as to what he was doing and Inverarity soon began to shout and swear at them.

Fiscal depute Mark Keane said during Monday’s hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that 35-year-old Inverarity had told police he “just wanted to be lifted”.

They allowed him to sit down at the back of the vehicle in an effort to talk to him and calm the situation but Inverarity continued to act in an unruly manner. Officers arrested him and on the way to Edinburgh’s St Leonard’s Police Station Mr Keane said that Inverarity “continued to shout and swear and repeatedly bang the inside of the van with his head”.

The fiscal added Inverarity, of Bridge Street, refused medical assistance for injuries sustained during the journey when they arrived at the station.

Inverarity pleaded guilty to shouting, swearing, acting aggressively and banging his head against the inside of a police van at Goosegreen Avenue and during the course of a journey between Musselburgh and St Leonard’s Police Station on December 26 last year.

His solicitor said Inverarity had previously been homeless and he suffered from cannabis and alcohol addictions.

The lawyer said: “He is unclear as to why he did this. I can only assume it was a cry for help.”

Sheriff Peter McCormack heard Inverarity was currently serving a previous community payback order, including supervision, for a separate offence, which will end in February.

The sheriff agreed to defer sentence to February 7 for the completion of the order and for Inverarity to be of good behaviour.