A PRESTONPANS man is facing a lengthy jail sentence after he burst into a man’s home and attacked him with a hammer.

David Couch assaulted victim John Smith with the blunt work tool after entering the man’s home, on the town’s Preston Avenue, uninvited, on August 28, 2022.

Couch, 37, shouted threats of violence towards Mr Smith before striking him with the hammer and then robbing him of a quantity of cash and jewellery.

Couch was later arrested by police.

And while being taken to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and then to the city’s St Leonard’s police station, he made derogatory remarks to four officers and repeatedly spat inside a police van, all on September 8, 2022.

He pleaded guilty to both offences when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on May 13 this year and was remanded in custody and sentence was deferred for the preparation of background reports.

But when the case called for sentencing last Monday, Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss was told that the social work reports had not been prepared and sentence was deferred, for a second time, to June 20.

Couch, of Middleshot Square, had his remand period continued to the sentencing hearing.