AN INMATE considered too dangerous to appear for trial at Alloa Sheriff Court has finally been sentenced for assaulting prison staff at Glenochil.

The incandescent Tiffany Scott, formerly known as Andrew Burns, attacked four guards and nurse, and staged a dirty protest at the Clacks jail.

She had been due to face trial at the court in Alloa but security measures were said to be insufficient.

Proceedings against the 26-year-old were then re-raised at Falkirk Sheriff Court, though the trial was heard in her absence, as she refused to attend court.

The accused was found guilty and was forced to appear in the dock last Wednesday – as, under Scots Law, no one can be jailed without being present themselves.

However, the brief hearing proved tempestuous as Scott hurled abuse at the sheriff on the bench.

The public were cleared from the courtroom, amid fears that the accused, who has been known to bite open her own veins and spray blood at people, would present "a clear danger".

Surrounded by a phalanx of security guards and with police standing by, Scott replied "no" when asked by the clerk of court, "Are you Tiffany Louise Scott, formerly known as Andrew Burns?"

Sheriff Derek Livingston then said: "I'm satisfied that's who he is."

Scott shouted: "I'm not 'he' anything – she."

Solicitor Dick Sandeman, appointed by the court to represent the accused, said he had been unable to obtain instructions.

Scott then interrupted: "You don't represent me – you're involved in it."

Mr Sandeman continued: "That's correct. But I've not been instructed at all in this matter by Miss Scott, and there's nothing therefore I can say in terms of mitigation."

Scott then called Sheriff Livingston a "f***ing transphobe b*****d" and a "c**t" as he jailed her for a further year on five charges of assault and one of criminal damage.

The sheriff ordered the term to be served consecutive to her present, indeterminate sentence, before adding: "Take him down."

As Scott was led from the dock she turned to abuse the sheriff again, with guards heard to say: "Shut up and keep walking."

The charges followed incidents between August and October 2015 while Scott, of Kinglassie, Fife, was in a segregation unit in Glenochil.

At the time, prison staff were complying with her requests that she should be known as "Mighty Almighty", or Obi Wan Kenobi.

The case was initially due to be heard at Alloa earlier this year, but was dropped after an internal report warned Scott was "too dangerous" to be tried in public in the Victorian court house there.

After an outcry from prison officers' union officials, it was re-raised in Falkirk, one of the highest-security court complexes in Scotland.

Scott is one of only some 100 offenders in Scotland subject to an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR), meaning she will only be released when she is no longer considered an "unmanageable risk to public safety".

She has a string of conviction for crimes including assaults, vandalism and resisting arrests.

In 2010, she assaulted a nurse when he escaped a hospital in Crewe, Cheshire.

Four years ago, she also admitted stalking a 13-year-old girl by sending her letters from her cell at Polmont Prison, near Falkirk.

She was sentenced to 14 months and given her OLR at the High Court in Glasgow.