Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.

Thief’s £6,700 bike heist

An opportunistic thief has been jailed after riding off with a Poundstretcher worker’s £6,700 bicycle.

William Hanratty helped himself to the unsecured bike outside the Great Northern Road store.

The 39-year-old, who stole it to sell for drug money, was seen pedalling away as the staff member stepped outside due to a fire alarm going off.

Fiscal depute Ryan Diamond told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “At 11.50am on May 6, the owner of the bike commenced his shift at the locus.”

Man stamped baby seagulls to death

A man has been jailed after he stamped baby seagulls to death in front of a horrified neighbour.

Jay McIntosh was left splattered in blood after carrying out the “reprehensible” attack on the three-day-old chicks in Buckie.

The 22-year-old has appeared in court in connection with that violent outburst as well as another, which prompted an armed police response and a six-hour stand-off.

Elgin Sheriff Court heard how McIntosh was spotted shouting and swearing on Wallace Avenue in Buckie at about 8pm on June 17 this year.

Ex-prison guard facing jail for sex abuse

A former Inverness prison officer is facing jail after been found guilty of sexually abusing a girl in the early 1980s.

Melvin Walker, 78, had denied using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards the child, who was aged between 12 and 16, as well as indecent assault.

The charges relate to incidents between 1980 and 1984, during which time the former RAF serviceman Walker worked as a prison guard at HMP Inverness.

Walker’s victim gave evidence during his trial at Inverness Sheriff Court and told the jury how he began to target her when she was 12 or 13.

Serial disqualified driver jailed

A serial disqualified driver has been jailed for four months and had an “academic” 13 years added to his lifetime driving ban.

John Dunnigan was caught behind the wheel while disqualified twice in a fortnight, bringing up his tally of ban breaches to 25.

Sheriff Peter Grant Hutchison said he had “no option” but to imprison him after hearing of Dunnigan’s dreadful record.

The 41-year-old was previously jailed in 2015 after driving while disqualified for the 23rd time.

‘Barbaric’ sex attacker caged

A serial sex attacker has been jailed for 12 years for a decade of “barbarity” against three women.

Daniel Esslemont preyed on his terrified victims, including trying to kill one of them.

The crimes occurred between 2011 and 2021 at different addresses in Aberdeen.

The 31-year-old was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.

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Woman leaked sex tape

A woman has appeared in court for leaking a sex tape after she discovered it featured her boyfriend and best friend.

Abigail Darbyshire was 20 weeks pregnant when she found the “intimate” footage on her long-term partner’s mobile phone.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the horrified 31-year-old sent the almost four-and-a-half minute video to several people – including the partner of the woman on camera.

Darbyshire found the video so distressing that she was admitted to Cornhill Hospital the following day.

Man accused of mum’s murder

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of an Aberdeen mum whose burning body was found by firefighters opposite a road in Dyce at the weekend.

Rhys Bennett, 22, appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, accused of striking Jill Barclay on the head by an unknown means.

Bennett, whose address was given as Ballingry, faced charges of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

He made no plea and has been remanded in custody.

Drink-driver had knife ‘to sharpen pencils’

A drink-driver caught with a knife in his car claimed he had the blade to “sharpen his pencils”.

Andrew Hindes was more than double the legal alcohol limit when police officers pulled him over on the Lang Stracht in Aberdeen.

The 34-year-old was initially searched due to a smell of cannabis, but instead of drugs, officers found a blade stashed under his seat.

And when questioned about the knife, Hindes told officers he had it “to sharpen his pencils”.

Building boss fined over badger crime

A north-east construction boss has been fined and told he is “fortunate” no badgers were killed after his firm bulldozed over their natural habitat to build an access route.

Bruce Allan, director of Malcolm Allan Housebuilders, was fined more than £9,000 after his firm accepted responsibility in court for allowing a track to be built on top of active setts where up to 30 badgers lived in Milltimber.

Allan’s firm had been warned by a resident that the protected species was present at the Contlaw Road site, but had received a “brusque reply basically telling him to mind his own business”.

Despite the setts being destroyed or severely damaged, no evidence was found that badgers had been killed by the firm’s actions, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.

Warning about upsetting WhatsApp message

Police have warned the public against sharing information about an Aberdeen mum’s murder after a widely-circulated WhatsApp message spread false details of her death.

The message, which has been forwarded many times on the social media app, appears to detail the events leading up to 47-year-old Jill Barclay’s death.

But much of what the message contains is completely false, in particular the manner in which Jill died.

Police say that sharing the message risks unfairly influencing the upcoming court case and upsetting people close to the victim.

Former footballer banned over crash

A former Ross County and Highland League footballer has been banned from the roads after crashing his car on the way home from a bar and seriously injuring a friend.

Steven Ross offered the man a lift in February of 2019, but crashed his car through a fence and overturned it.

He appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously pled guilty to a single charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

A previous hearing heard how Steven Ross’ car ended up on its roof after crashing into a fence and trees on the A832 west of Tore.

Drink-driver flattened lamppost

A drink-driver who flattened a lamppost during a Bridge of Don crash and then fled the scene of the accident will lose his job.

Patryk Minczuk said he “panicked” after he overshot the junction on the Parkway and crashed head-first into the lamppost.

Fiscal depute Eabha Sweeney said Minczuk was almost four times the legal limit when the accident happened near the Woodside Road junction and the A92 around 5.20pm on January 15 this year.

She said nearby witnesses saw the 41-year-old exit the car and make off on foot along Parkway before police arrived and traced him at home smelling of alcohol.

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Wobbly biker stank of booze

A motorcyclist found wobbling all over North Anderson Drive and holding up traffic jumped off his bike and legged it when police tried to approach him.

Nicholas Stephen was stinking of alcohol when officers managed to catch up with him but refused to provide breath samples to ascertain whether he’d been drinking.

The aggressive 32-year-old then branded one officer a “virgin” and warned he would “come after” him.

The biker had earlier been drinking before the “stupid” act of “lunacy” in hopping on his motorbike.

Former senior police officer denies assault

A former senior police officer has gone on trial accused of striking a junior female member of staff while at work.

Kevin Hird, a retired Aberdeen detective inspector, is alleged to have hit 26-year-old Sarah Tortolano on the back of the head while working at Queen Street Police Station – the north-east’s police headquarters at the time.

During the trial, Ms Tortolano, now 28, told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that she was “shocked” and “really scared” by the incident.

Hird, 53, does not deny that there was contact but claims there was no evil intent and that he was joking at the time, the court was told.

Gang planned to flood Highlands with drugs

A drug-dealing gang who planned to flood the Highlands with cocaine and heroin has been locked up after being caught by a police operation.

The mob set up bases in Inverness and Elgin during the lucrative trafficking operation.

A judge heard how £2,000 a day was raked in from one house used for dealing.

Duncan Murdoch, 29, Richard Pryce, 31, Nathaniel Morgan, 32, and Alexander Cobb, 28, all appeared in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow.

Man followed random women

A man has been branded a “danger to the public” after staring at, following and trying to get into the cars of random women in Aberdeen.

Szczepan Rekas targeted complete strangers on various streets around Aberdeen, even following one woman home and trying to force his way inside her house.

On another frightening occasion, two women got into their car and found Rekas sitting in the back seat.

The 43-year-old admitted a total of nine separate charges over his menacing behaviour around the Old Aberdeen and Tillydrone area of the city throughout November last year.

Neighbour chased with metal pole

A man who chased his neighbour into a branch of Tesco and then battered him with a metal pole has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.

Neilson Harris, 21, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted chasing the man into the Wellington Road store before striking him on the shoulder with the four-foot object.

The court heard that Harris’s victim eventually managed to overpower him and escape.

Harris also admitted two counts of possession with intent to supply cannabis and Etizolam while in HMP Young Offenders Institution in Polmont.

Father stalked ex-wife and daughters

A father has been found guilty of stalking his estranged wife and daughters after leaving notes on his late son’s grave.

David Foster also sent letters to the women and made malicious reports of lockdown rule-breaking to police, resulting in officers attending at his estranged wife’s home.

Heather Foster previously told the court that the incident brought back painful memories of the night police turned up at her door to tell her that their son Samuel had been killed in a car crash on A82.

Foster, 58, had denied a single charge that he engaged in a course of conduct that caused fear or alarm, which related to incidents between January and June of 2020.

Teen threw fan from third-floor window

A troubled teen caused more than £5,000 of damage to a flat and lobbed chunks of plaster and an extractor fan from the third-floor window.

Luke Turnbull admitted a spree of offending, which also included him threatening to kill police and boasting that he’d taken drugs and couldn’t feel pain.

The 18-year-old’s “feral behaviour” involved numerous offences of theft and violence, all while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

But the young offender has been given one “final chance” by a sheriff to turn his life around and find a “new path” or face a custodial sentence.

Thirsty thief caught by can of Tango

An alcoholic thief and violent criminal who was snared when he left his DNA and fingerprints on a half-empty can of Tango at the crime scene has been jailed.

Kevin McCabe, known as Tolmie, left forensic traces of himself on the fizzy drink – leading police straight to his door.

The 38-year-old also carried out a knifepoint raid at a Torry newsagent over a single can of beer, telling the frightened worker he’d get his alcohol “one way or another”.

He was jailed for two years at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

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