Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Fraserburgh undertaker found with slurred speech and no trousers in A9 layby
A Fraserburgh undertaker who was found in an A9 layby with no trousers on failed to provide police with a breath sample, a court has heard.
Owen Mackinnon had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol when officers discovered him partially undressed in the driver’s seat of his car at the North Kessock stopping area.
Defence solicitor John MacColl said Mackinnon had “caught himself short” while out for a drive and had stopped to “sort himself out” before drinking from a bottle that was in the car.
Aberdeen cinema vaper’s 18-rated tirade of abuse after being asked to leave
A man has been handed unpaid work after he became abusive and violent towards cinema staff when they asked him to stop vaping.
Alexander McPhee, 18, was asked to leave Vue Cinema in Aberdeen but unleashed an 18-rated volley of abuse before grabbing a worker by his lapels.
McPhee – who was out with his partner and friends – then began swinging his hands at a manager and the usher before being arrested and ejected from the building by police.
Serial child sex abuser branded a ‘monster’ and jailed for 15 years
A child rapist who carried out abuse on girls dating back to the 1970s has been jailed for 15 years, with the judge saying that a victim’s description of him as a “monster” was “hard to disagree with”.
James Pollard was previously found guilty of abusing five young victims at various locations in the north of Scotland between 1979 and 2022.
Pollard, 71, had denied all of the offences during a seven-day trial at the High Court in Inverness, but, on the second day of their deliberations, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges.
Needle-phobic student refused to provide blood sample after positive drugs wipe
A student tested positive for cannabis but failed to provide a blood sample for analysis due to his fear of needles, a court has heard.
Dominik Krogulek initially cooperated with officers when they wanted to check his suitability to be in charge of a vehicle, submitting to a drug wipe test.
But he later failed to provide the blood sample, blaming this on a phobia of needles.
Invergordon thug had to be tased three times as he brutally attacked policewoman
A man had to be tased three times as he savagely assaulted police officers who had turned up at his home.
After kicking and punching the policewoman, Shane Williamson tore clumps of hair out of her head and bit her on the hand.
It took three shots of a taser to bring the 22-year-old thug under control but his victim was left bruised, bleeding and with concussion, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
Mum jailed for 13 months after Inverness street assault
An Inverness mother who was jailed for a brutal stabbing in Aberdeen has been handed a further prison sentence after admitting an attempted mugging in the Highland capital.
Leah Petrie was sentenced to five years and five months in jail for her part in the brutal attack on Tina Stewart on May 30 2023.
Last week Petrie, 22, along with accomplice Candice Seers, 38, admitted repeatedly stabbing Ms Stewart on Aberdeen’s Hutcheon Street.
Claims paedophile prisoner phoned girl while in HMP Grampian
Prison officials have received “concerning information” that a convicted paedophile made sexual calls to an underage girl while locked up inside HMP Grampian.
Joshua Parkinson, 30, was jailed in June this year at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after he sent sickening sexual messages to what he believed was a 12-year-old girl.
The paedophile appeared in the same court again this week and admitted communicating sexually with children.
American driver banned after causing A96 crash that left two seriously injured
A sheriff criticised an American motorist for getting behind the wheel of her car after drinking wine and then causing a serious road accident.
Rebecca Darden had consumed a glass of wine before she pulled into the path of an oncoming car near Auldearn.
The resulting smash left the driver and passenger of the other vehicle seriously injured, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
Killer imprisoned and tortured man before Aberdeen high-rise plunge
A man was forced to jump to his death from a 12th-storey Aberdeen flat to escape a “friend” who had spent two days torturing him, a court has heard.
Lee Smith, 37, abducted Jamie Forbes, also 37, and held him against his will at his flat in Elphinstone Court on January 14 and January 15 2024.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard on Wednesday how Smith repeatedly struck his victim with a hammer and punched and kicked him during the assault.
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Heroin dealers snared after one spoke to cops … while smoking a joint
Two county lines drug dealers who were caught after one of them approached police while smoking cannabis were jailed today.
Jahvid Frith was sentenced to 40 months imprisonment after a judge rejected a plea to spare him jail and his co-accused Tyrone Sealey was jailed for five years and three months.
Frith, 27, and Sealey, 24, earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine after almost £10,000 of the Class A drugs were recovered.
Frith also admitted possession of cannabis.
High-risk rapist met woman in Aberdeen without notifying police
A high-risk sex offender who was jailed for raping a teenage girl and leaving her tied to a tree has been secretly meeting women in Aberdeen, a court has heard.
Leon Pedley, 32, was described as one of the most serious sex offenders in Scotland as he appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted meeting a female on a dating website by using a fake name.
However, when he arranged to meet the female in Aberdeen, she brought along her friend, which Pedley neglected to disclose to police and was deemed a breach of his sex offenders prevention order.
Spurned man sent threatening Snapchat messages to ex
An Alness man sent threatening messages to his ex after she “cast him to one side” following a brief relationship.
Graham Connor sent the woman a series of sinister messages over Snapchat, including one that read: “You better get the f*** out of Forres before I get there.”
Connor, 36, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court, to plead guilty to a single charge of sending messages containing derogatory and abusive remarks and threats of violence to his ex-partner.
Top Aberdeen chef who fell into drug dealing jailed after squandering ‘final chance’
A former top chef who turned to drug dealing and petty crime after his restaurant business collapsed has been jailed for 18 months after squandering “multiple opportunities” to turn his life around.
Chris Tonner, 43, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted 10 charges of stealing cars, drug dealing, resisting arrest and shoplifting.
Tonner, who was once a well-known chef in the city, has seen heroin and cocaine abuse blight his life since the collapse of both his business and marriage, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.
His fall from grace stemmed from the failure of his company, Beetroot Restaurants.
Man, 36, in court after £800,000 cannabis farm found in Moray
A man has appeared in court accused of drug offences after a six-figure cannabis farm was discovered in rural Moray.
Acting on information that drugs were being produced at a property near the small hamlet of Drummuir, police officers executed a search warrant earlier this week.
The property – just off the B9014 Keith to Dufftown road – housed approximately £800,000 of cannabis and 36-year-old Trung Hoang was arrested.
Hoang, of no fixed abode, appeared in private at Elgin Sheriff Court facing two charges.
Man jailed after he tried to rob Aberdeen mobile phone shop with antique knife
A brave Aberdeen shop worker disarmed a knife-wielding assailant who was trying to rob his store of an iPhone.
Alex Sudarkin brandished an antique knife at the man in the George Street shop and tried to make off with an iPhone X, worth almost £300.
The 25-year-old posed as a shopper, but when the time came to pay for the phone Sudarkin grabbed it and produced the black “decorative” knife.
Get the latest crime and court stories delivered straight to your inbox
Every day our reporters are sitting in courtrooms around the area and now you can get their stories sent directly to you, five days a week.
Aberdeen child rapist jailed for ‘appalling’ historic sexual abuse
A convicted child rapist who used “threats and coercion” to abuse three children more than four decades ago has been jailed for 10 years.
John Raymond Taylor, 61, was unanimously convicted by a jury at the High Court in Aberdeen of sexually abusing and raping two girls and a boy at addresses in the city and elsewhere.
Jurors heard harrowing evidence from all three victims, now adults, about how Taylor began sexually assaulting them in the early 1970s.
Callous carer who stole £3,000 from elderly man with dementia narrowly avoids prison
A carer who breached the trust of a dementia sufferer “in the most callous way” by stealing £3,000 from him has been told she only narrowly avoided going to prison.
Michelle Felber, 51, took the vulnerable pensioner’s bank card to buy groceries but neglected to return it to him.
Instead, she used it 13 times to withdraw the man’s savings at cash machines across Aberdeen and Portlethen.
Man in court after trying to burst into neighbour’s home with hammer
A hammer-wielding Inverness man knocked on his neighbour’s door with a hammer and shouted: “Come on then you b******, I’m ready!”
Michael McPhee told another neighbour “I’m going to kill him” in the moments before the incident.
His solicitor told the court he had been struggling with alcohol addiction and poor mental health at the time.
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