Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Just Eat home invasion
A violent home invader impersonated a Just Eat delivery man in order to force his way into a house and rob the owner at knifepoint.
Steven Dunlop, 23, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted pretending to be a courier for the food delivery firm before storming into the house.
The court heard that Dunlop was carrying a Just Eat delivery bag when he attacked the homeowner and demanded “give me everything you’ve got”.
He made off with £400 and a £300 necklace.
OAP accused of threatening Nicola Sturgeon
A pensioner is to stand trial accused of threatening Nicola Sturgeon.
William Curtis is also charged with being involved in the assault and abduction of a sheriff as well as sending a video in connection with the murder of MP Jo Cox to another nationalist politician.
The 69-year-old, from Aberchirder, today faced the claims at the High Court in Glasgow.
Man, 78, charged after dog dies
A pensioner has been charged in connection with an incident in which a dog fell from a car near Fochabers.
Vets and emergency services were called to the scene at the Spey Bay roundabout on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road earlier this month.
It is believed the dog somehow fell from the boot of the car and then became entangled in its lead.
The animal was taken to the nearby Fochabers Veterinary Centre, where it was pronounced dead.
Highland League footballer jailed
A Highland League footballer was jailed for 16 months today after attacking a man outside an Inverness lapdancing club and leaving him permanently disfigured.
Lossiemouth FC centre-back Dean Stewart was caught on CCTV punching his victim in the face – just seconds after the two had shared a handshake and embraced.
Police issued images from the footage after the November 10, 2019 assault in a successful attempt to identify the 24-year-old.
Farmer guilty of terrifying forklift attack
A young farmer was facing jail today after a jury found him guilty of ramming a forklift into a former school friend’s van and then slashing his neck with a blade.
Stuart Allan’s victim was left so terrified by the assault on farmland in Alford that he fabricated a story to explain his injuries to family and friends.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Allan, 31, acted like a “drug-crazed hitman” when he ploughed the forklift’s spikes through the windscreen of Gary Stuart’s van before cutting his throat.
It took the jury an hour to reach their verdict.
Victim speaks out
A woman who was left with horrific injuries after being punched and headbutted by a man says she feels “disgusted and disappointed” that he wasn’t jailed.
Josh Cox, 30, launched the vicious and unprovoked assault on Lorraine Sutherland when he couldn’t find the man who had supposedly “wronged” him.
The attack has left Ms Sutherland with terrible injuries, including permanently reduced vision in one eye and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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Careless driver killed mum
A driver has appeared in court and admitted killing a young Elgin mum in a crash which happened as he was making a hands-free mobile phone call.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Robert Macdonald was on a call to his wife when his Audi A3 collided with the rear of 28-year-old Leigh-Anne Wood’s Peugeot 208.
Her car was pushed to the other side of the single carriageway and then collided with an oncoming tipper van, propelling it backwards.
High-risk offender’s graveyard sex act
A 62-year-old man carried out a sex act on a grave after following young girls and engaging them in sexual conversations.
Stephen Bell was on bail at the time, despite having previously been jailed for sex offences and being deemed a high risk by social workers.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Bell also broke off a journey to his partner’s home to drive to a playpark in Dundee and flash at 10 and eight-year-old girls.
Three in court accused of attempted murder
Three people have appeared in court charged with attempted murder after a firearm was shot in Fraserburgh.
Police raced to a property on Scalloway Park in the Aberdeenshire town on April 9 2021 following a report of a gun being fired.
It’s understood the weapon involved was a 9mm gun.
Villagers frightened by mooning man
A man mooned householders through their window and scared villagers at a playpark by making a remark about killing children.
One bystander lifted a child over a fence to get them out Maximilian Roberts-Dineen’s way as he shouted and swore in an agitated manner.
Roberts-Dineen also shouted aggressively at a grandmother as she cared for her eight-week-old granddaughter and told onlookers that he would “have you both”.
Woman trashed ex’s car
A woman “snapped” and smashed up her former partner’s car when she discovered he was going on holiday to Turkey despite owing her money for child maintenance.
Rachel Duncan, 23, “lost composure” and smashed the windows of his vehicle after discovering he was about to jet off abroad.
She then breached a condition not to approach the man less than 24 hours later by turning up at his home in Aberdeen with a hammer.
Her solicitor told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that Duncan had “lost her composure”.
Drink-driver caught twice in three days
A former naval surveyor who was caught driving massively over the limit twice in the space of just three days has had his car seized and been banned from the road.
Richard McAuliffe was first caught driving at almost six times the legal limit before police charged him again just two days later, this time at an even higher level.
Both times the 44-year-old was reported to police by concerned members of the public, who saw him buying alcohol from an off-licence in Inverbervie and then getting back into his car.
Sex offender loses appeal
A sex offender who assaulted a woman while she was incapacitated by her medication has failed to overturn the prison sentence handed to them after admitting to the crime.
Gender-fluid Laura Miller was jailed for 23 months for sexually assaulting their victim, who was incapable of consenting, on several occasions.
They even filmed one of the indecent assaults as their victim was sleeping.
Ballater hotel worker abused girlfriend
A new dad assaulted the mother of his five-day-old son during a nine-month campaign of domestic abuse.
Csaba Mihaly subjected his partner to a torrent of physical and verbal abuse on three occasions at their Ballater home.
The 29-year-old spat in her face, pushed her to the ground, grabbed her by the throat so she struggled to breathe, slapped her on the face and dragged her from a bed between June 2019 and March 2020.
The hotel worker even attacked his now ex-girlfriend just five days after she gave birth.
Snared by a toothbrush
An illegal immigrant who was caught running a huge Aberdeenshire cannabis farm had more than £162,000 worth of plants – and claimed they were for personal use.
Donatas Kyliokas, 37, was snared when police found his DNA on a toothbrush at the rural outbuilding that was being used to store and grow hundreds of cannabis plants.
When police raided the property at Sunnyside in Fyvie they found a large-scale cannabis farm with 266 plants and saplings estimated to be worth a total of £162,780.
Pub crawl black-out
An Aberdeen dad blacked out during a pub crawl with his son and has no memory of hurling sexual and homophobic abuse at police officers.
Ronald Wedderburn woke up in a police cell and has no recollection of anything he did after bar number two, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
During those “missing” hours the 47-year-old made threats to kill an officer and “hunt down” their family and also acted inappropriately towards a female officer.
Pensioner groped woman on Union Street
A grieving pensioner sexually assaulted an Aberdeen club promoter after turning to drink following the sudden death of his partner.
Andrew Hunter grabbed the 20-year-old woman’s bum as she was working on Union Street late at night.
The woman was left scared as Hunter continued to loiter in the area, before returning to grope her a second time.
The 67-year-old had started drinking heavily following the sudden passing of his long-term partner.
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Man threatened to slit busker’s throat
A man has been handed unpaid work after accusing an Aberdeen busker of singing about him – then threatening to slit his throat.
Jaroslaw Mackowiak approached the musician as he walked along Union Street in the early hours of the morning.
When the 41-year-old made the bizarre accusation and threat, the busker immediately phoned the police.
70 beers in one night
A man who was abusive to his partner for nearly a year throttled her after they shared 70 cans of beer.
Rudzevicius, 28, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted using derogatory language and slapping the woman at a flat in King Street, Aberdeen over an 11 month period.
The situation culminated in him pushing his girlfriend onto a bed and restricting her breathing by grabbing her by the neck.
The court heard the pair had shared 70 cans of 440ml beer that night.
Slurring driver ‘thought the ketamine had worn off’
A woman who got behind the wheel while still under the influence of ketamine thought the drug had “worn off”, a court has heard.
Carla Stein, 20, was found in her car by police in Aberdeen after being alerted by the general public to someone driving erratically.
Police found Stein had pulled her vehicle over to the side of the road but was exhibiting slurred speech and in a confused state.
A blood test showed she had the powerful anaesthetic ketamine in her system.
Drink-driving learner crashed mum’s car
A drink-driver took his mum’s car to visit a woman then got into a collision, a court has heard.
Learner driver Brandon Byth, 23, had been drinking vodka and told his mum he needed to go outside to “get some air”.
But when a woman called to say he had driven to her house, the mum checked outside to find her car was missing.
Care home worker slapped wife
A drunk care home worker was arrested by police after he admitted slapping his wife after wrongly accusing her of having an affair.
During a call with a police call handler Arun Premkumar, 35, said he believed his wife was cheating on him.
Premkumar, who was described by police as “heavily intoxicated”, freely admitted that he had slapped the woman “four or five times”.
‘Outrageous’ fine for illegal trawlerman
A marine conservation charity has blasted the “derisory” fine handed out to a trawler skipper who destroyed a fragile seabed off the north west coast of Scotland while illegally dredging for scallops.
Alex Murray, of Lewis, was penalised £3211, including a £175 victim surcharge, for fishing in the Wester Ross marine protected area (MPA) near Ullapool.
It is thought to be only the second case of its kind since MPAs were introduced by the Scottish Government in recent years.
Boy, 15, stabbed pensioner
A teenager who absconded from a school tried to murder an 85-year-old woman in her home after repeatedly stabbing her, a court heard today.
The boy inflicted multiple wounds on the pensioner with a knife from her own kitchen during the attack at her rural cottage near Montrose.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told the attacker – who also robbed his victim of £80: “You have pled guilty to a truly terrible crime, but you are only 15 years old. You are a child.”
Tripper’s embarrassment
A man who tripped and fell into the door of an Aberdeen Co-op store then battered it with a road sign out of “frustration and embarrassment”, a court has heard.
Sergejus Zalmonas, 44, was intoxicated while walking down Union Street when he tripped on a road sign and hit his head on the door of the store.
He then picked up the road sign and smashed a hole through the Co-op’s front glass panel.
Zalmonas was later picked up by police and found with blood all over his hand.
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