A TRANENT man will be sentenced next month after he admitted spitting at police officers and claiming he had AIDS.

Stefan Heron, 37, had been arrested following an alleged incident at a pharmacy in Edinburgh in May.

Police were called out to deal with the incident at the city’s Macmillan Square but Heron soon began shouting, swearing and acting in a threatening manner.

He shouted offensive remarks and threats of violence towards the police officers before he was arrested and placed in handcuffs.

Heron, of Fowler Street, then proceeded to assault two of the officers by repeatedly spitting at them, spitting on the handcuffs and telling the officers he had the disease.

The offender was then discovered to have a knife in his possession when police searched him during the incident at a branch of Lloyds Pharmacy on May 5.

Heron pleaded guilty to three charges when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Tuesday.

He also had not guilty pleas to a further four offences accepted by the Crown.

His co-accused, 38-year-old Gemma Thomson, of Macbeth Moir Road, Musselburgh, had not guilty pleas to three charges accepted by the Crown and walked free from the dock.

Sentence on Heron was deferred to next month for the preparation of reports.