Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Dundee United fan avoids jail
On Monday, a Dundee United supporter who attacked an Aberdeen player during a match was ordered to carry out unpaid work as a direct alternative to jail.
Marc Jackson assaulted Dons midfielder Funso Ojo as he ran towards home supporters to recover the ball when it went out of play.
Jackson, a season ticket holder at Tannadice for 22 years, stood up and used both hands to shove the player backwards, causing him to stumble.
Pervert had folders of indecent images
A north-east pervert who collected more than 900 indecent images of children over a 10-year period has been spared jail.
Christopher Wakefield, 62, had the images filed in organised folders and duplicated across multiple devices at his Boddam home, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson said police received intelligence that Wakefield was in possession of indecent images of children and so carried out a search warrant of his home on March 2 last year.
“Several electronic devices were seized and examined,” she said.
Man was coke dealer for pals
A man has been handed unpaid work after being caught dealing cocaine to his pals – because it was his turn to buy.
Craig Stephenson, 58, regularly took cocaine with friends and claims whoever was buying the drug purchased enough for the whole group.
Acting on a tip-off police raided Stephenson’s rural home last year and he was caught with hundreds of pounds worth of the class A drug.
Steve Paterson denies domestic abuse charge
Former Aberdeen and Inverness Caley Thistle manager Steve Paterson has denied a charge of domestic abuse against his partner.
Paterson is accused of shouting and swearing at the woman as well as punching a pillow beside her and pushing her, causing her to fall to the floor.
But the former football manager – who is widely credited with the Caley Jags’ rise from the third to the first divisions during his seven-year tenure at the Highland club – denies all the allegations.
Former oil boss was three-times the limit
A former oil boss who lost his business due to the downturn has been banned from the road after being caught drink-driving.
John Gibson had been settling in at home to watch the Formula 1 with a few drinks on November 21, when he realised his son, who had been due to collect his grandchildren, was asleep.
The 70-year-old became agitated and hopped into his motor to head to his son’s address.
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Inquiry into sinking tragedy concludes
A hearing into the deaths of three Western Isles fishermen has concluded and a report of its findings is expected before the end of this month.
Martin Johnstone, 29, Chris Morrison, 27, and skipper Paul Alliston, 42, were asleep when the creel vessel Louisa began taking on water while at anchor near Mingulay, off the Outer Hebrides, on April 9 2016.
An inquiry before Sheriff Derek Pyle, at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court in North Uist, has been told how what happened to the stricken Stornoway-registered vessel was “a very unusual and exceptional event”.
Man downloaded indecent images
A man who downloaded more than 500 indecent images of children over an 18-month period has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
David Mitchell, 32, had 104 images of the most graphic kind on his mobile phone, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 32-year-old, whose address on court papers was given as Hillhead Road, Tornagrain, near Inverness, admitted having downloaded the material between March 8 2019 and September 24 2020.
Domestic abuser burned victim with cigarette
A serial domestic abuser who headbutted a pregnant woman and burned another girlfriend with a cigarette has admitted more than a dozen charges against five women.
Callum Brown, who was originally charged with a total of 35 crimes, was caught after two separate investigations by a specialist domestic violence taskforce.
The 27-year-old, from Inverness, admitted a total of 13 charges committed against five different women between February 2014 and July 2021.
Cyclist injured in careless crash
A delivery driver whose misjudged overtake resulted in cyclist being taken to hospital has admitted careless driving.
Jamie Taylor’s 7.5 tonne vehicle clashed wing mirrors with an oncoming lorry as he tried to pull back on to his side of the road, sending debris flying into the path of the cyclist he had just passed.
The cyclist tried to take evasive action but hit one of the broken wing mirrors and fell from his bike resulting in paramedics being called and a trip to hospital to be checked over.
Man had 30 minutes of child abuse footage
A man has been placed on the sex offenders register after he admitted possessing more than 900 indecent images and more than half an hour of child abuse footage.
Piotr Kruczkowski’s Inverness home was searched by police after a tip-off about his internet activity and computer equipment was seized.
Examination of the devices by the Police Cyber Crimes unit unearthed the indecent images and video, with 80 of the pictures and six of the videos classed as Category A -the most serious.
12-time disqualified driver
A man who found the temptation to drive “just too much” and jumped behind the wheel while disqualified for the 12th time has avoided a prison sentence.
Gavin Cruickshank, 60, was stopped by police on the A93 in Banchory after he purchased a vehicle and took it for a spin because he got “bored”.
He has driving convictions stretching back to 2001 and has received “jail, jail and more jail” for driving whilst banned, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Drink-driver crashed girlfriend’s car
A Banchory man crashed his girlfriend’s car into a wall then drove off while more than three-times the drink-drive limit, a court has heard.
Graham McDonald, 37, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted getting behind the wheel after drinking a bottle of wine at his home.
Witnesses watched as the supermarket worker drove his girlfriend’s car through a junction and plowed it into a stone dyke before driving off.
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Man stabbed in bed
A thug brutally stabbed a man as he slept in his bed after a row over how a female friend had been treated at a house party.
Eric Shand, 20, carried out the assault at the victim’s home in the Woodside area of Aberdeen on July 30 2020.
The High Court in Glasgow was told the pair had earlier been at a nearby house party.
Shand was said to be annoyed his victim’s apparent conduct towards a female friend that night.
Drug dealer back in business
A convicted drug trafficker was caught again after a caravan park worker found an illegal stash he tried to dump.
Gary Lawson was out on licence from a previous jail term when police confronted him about a separate matter on September 12 2020.
The 58-year-old had been sitting in his Vauxhall Astra car at Broomhill Caravan Park in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, at the time.
Pensioners admit assault
A pair of north-east pensioners claim they assaulted their “neighbour from hell” after years of torment, a court has been told.
Lawyers for Edith and John MacMillan allege they had been subject to a campaign of harassment and intimidation for more than two years before they finally “snapped”.
Dog faeces had been posted through their letterbox, washing had been sprayed with urine and stones had been thrown at their property, Elgin Sheriff Court was told.
The assault took place on July 12 last year when the couple returned to their Buckie home.
Domestic abuser’s drug-fuelled attack
A violent domestic abuser who was cleared of attempting to murder his former partner has still been jailed for a drink and drug-fuelled attack on her in Aberdeen.
John McLaughlan was handed a three-year prison sentence at the High Court in Livingston today, following his conviction for assault to injury and danger of life.
A jury found the 43-year-old guilty of the attack, but cleared him of the more serious charge of attempted murder.
Family feud has spanned generations
A man who assaulted an Inverness teenager in his own home did it because of a family feud that has been rumbling on for generations, a court has heard.
Jack Drummond walked into his 17-year-old victim’s home and told him: “I’m going to murder you” before punching him and encouraging another man to stab him.
His solicitor said the assaults happened against the background of a “family fallout that has gone on for a number of generations”.
Speeder’s 101mph overtake
A charity volunteer has been spared a roads ban riding his motorbike at 101mph on a rural Aberdeenshire road.
Matthew Bland hit the crazy speed when he overtook a stream of cars on the A93 near Ballater on July 25 last year.
Fiscal depute Christy Martin told Aberdeen Sheriff Court how the 50-year-old was caught by cops as he tore along road near Tullich Church on his silver Triumph motorbike around 1pm.
Child abuse images downloaded ‘out of curiosity’
A Keith man who downloaded indecent images of children being sexually abused “out of curiosity” has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.
Cameron Thomson, 20, of Cameron Drive, Keith, had his home raided by cops on October 30 2020 following an investigation by Police Scotland’s National Child Abuse Unit.
Thomson appeared in the dock at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing, after previously pleading guilty to possessing the 401 images, 54 of which were the most graphic, involving girls aged between 10 and 15.
He also pleaded guilty to distributing three of the images.
Thug’s violent pub rammy
A racist thug violently attacked staff and customers at an Aberdeen pub because his credit card payment was declined.
Dad-of-one Thomas Collins appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted punching and biting staff at Wilson’s Sports Bar during a night out in December last year.
The 36-year-old then turned on customers as workers tried to eject him from the Market Street pub.
One staff member was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to receive a tetanus injection.
Children in drink-driving crash
A mum who crashed her car down a 30ft embankment with two children inside was twice the drink-drive limit.
Cristine Morrison tried to overtake a slow-moving camper van on the A894 three miles north of the Kylesku Bridge but clipped a verge, went over a barrier and down the embankment.
When police arrived on the scene Morrison said she had had a glass of wine with her lunch three hours earlier.
Abusive boyfriend’s baseball bat threats
An abusive boyfriend told his girlfriend “you are going to pay for this” as he threatened her with a baseball bat and trashed the living room.
Krystian Pytlinski, 25, waved the bat around, berated his partner of seven years and threw household items.
The barrage of abuse went on for five hours and only ended when his partner fled their Elgin home and sought help from a neighbour.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told Elgin Sheriff Court the incident happened on October 20 last year.
Farm raider
A thief has been jailed after stealing power tools worth more than £1,000 from an Aberdeenshire farm.
Chad Hodgkins, 28, along with an accomplice who remains unidentified, forced entry into a shed at Blackiemuir Farm, Laurencekirk, on November 21 last year.
The pair grabbed the expensive power tools from inside and fled with their haul.
‘Childish’ speeder clocked at 122mph
A driver caught speeding at 122 miles per hour on a notorious stretch of the A9 has been banned from the roads for 11 months.
Jordan Mackenzie, 23, was clocked by police as he sped along the A9 at Arpafeelie, north of the Munlochy junction.
He told officers that it was his first “quick vehicle” and that he had indulged in “childish behaviour”.
Man denies throwing dog down stairs
An Elgin man is due to stand trial accused of a host of animal cruelty offences, including allegedly swinging a dog around by its tail.
Clive Vincent-Ellis denies four charges of causing an animal unnecessary suffering at his Bishopmill home during both January and September 2021.
It’s alleged that the 52-year-old lifted a collie dog by the tail “unsupported” before “swinging it about” on September 1, last year.
The twenty poond conman
A dad who used fake “twenty poond” banknotes to buy games consoles from online sellers has been ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Ross Melville, 27, bought the counterfeit currency online and used it to buy PlayStation consoles that had been listed for sale on Gumtree.
But eagle-eyed sellers rumbled his ruse when they spotted the false banknotes had a glaring spelling mistake.
Murderer’s prison escape bid
A former British Army sniper who shot a Bangladeshi waiter to death on Orkney has admitted trying to escape from one of Scotland’s highest security prisons.
Michael Ross, 43, was caught as he tried to break free from HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire.
Prison guards watched as he attempted to use a homemade ladder to scale the perimeter fence of an exercise yard.
£1m cannabis gang guilty
A foreign crime gang caught in a huge cannabis bust in Peterhead were jailed after police seized drugs with a street value of £1 million last year.
Romualdas Galdikas, 43, Arturas Litkinas, 32, Justas Brazinskas, 25, and Tadas Jurjonas, 45, were snared after a series of raids in Peterhead in 2021.
Prosecutor Bill McVicar today told the High Court in Glasgow: “This case involves a large scale, sophisticated and high valued organised crime venture.
Man cleared of murdering grandad
A man has been cleared of murdering a grandfather outside an Aberdeen pub – despite having already been convicted of his attempted murder before he died.
Michael Scott was found guilty in 2019 of attempting to murder grandfather Graeme Hardie by hitting him with his car outside the Staging Post pub in Bucksburn.
But Mr Hardie, who was left needing round-the-clock care at the specialist Chaseley Trust home in Eastbourne, tragically passed away on March 5 2020 – more than a year and a half after the incident in July 2018.
Following his death, the Crown decided to prosecute Scott, 37, for his murder.
‘I hope you get the virus and it kills you’
A lout told his ex-partner he hoped she would catch Covid and die during a “tirade” of furious emails.
Andrew Gordon bombarded the woman with emails between April 24 2020 and Christmas Day the same year, before sending a further email in September 2021.
During the messages, the 39-year-old ranted about his former partner being “selfish” and taunted that he hoped she would become infected with coronavirus and that it would kill her.
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