Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Jail for man who refused to leash powerful dog and brutally assaulted woman
A man refused to leash his powerful Cane Corso dog during a confrontation with police and told officers it had “the strongest bite”.
Dylan Rowlands’ face was “covered in blood” when officers responded to reports of a disturbance at a property in Dingwall.
He had a Cane Corso dog with him which “did not appear to be observing commands”, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Man who touched and kissed women in Inverness guilty of sexual assault
A man has admitted threatening behaviour and sexual assault after touching and kissing women on the streets of Inverness.
Paul Erwin accosted one woman on the Raining’s Steps – putting his arm around her and telling her she was a “good-looking woman”.
He also followed one woman to her car before kissing her on the hand, while he walked with another for “a considerable period of time” before hugging and kissing her.
The SEVEN-YEAR Aberdeen parking ticket row
If your car was used to abuse the parking rules, should you be made to say who was driving?
That was the question at the centre of a long-running court battle over a troublesome Vauxhall Corsa that kept showing up at Aberdeen car park without a permit.
Infuriated officials from the Robert Gordon University car park off Garthdee Road kept finding the W-reg vehicle there in 2018 – and often it was parked in a disabled bay.
All they could do was slap ticket after ticket on it – until eventually there were 49 unpaid fines.
Pair avoid prison after abducting victim and demanding ransom from mum
Two youths have avoided a prison sentence after they abducted, attacked and humiliated a man before demanding a ransom from his terrified mum.
Jack Airens and Chase Johnstone, both 20, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where they admitted abducting the man over money they believed he owned them.
The pair, along with another man, snatched the man from Peterhead and took him to an address in Aberdeen, where they placed him on a chair and beat him before shaving off half his hair.
Aberdeen pensioner letting himself go blind to atone for thousands of indecent images
An Aberdeen pensioner caught with more than 174,000 indecent images of children is refusing medical treatment for blindness to “punish himself” for his crimes.
Michael Walker, who suffers from cataracts in both eyes, can only see shapes and is hoping his failing sight will prevent him from reoffending in the future.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the 78-year-old told officers he preferred looking at sexual images of children rather than adults because they were “flawless”.
Elgin bus driver’s killer loses appeal against ‘excessive’ sentence
A teenager who killed Elgin bus driver Keith Rollinson has lost an appeal against his sentence, despite claiming he suffered a miscarriage of justice.
The youth was sentenced to four years and four months detention for the culpable homicide of Mr Rollinson, who lost his life after the attack on him at the bus station in Elgin, in February last year.
The 15-year-old was out drinking with friends in the town’s centre before deciding to catch a bus home, but Mr Rollinson refused to let him on the bus because of his state of intoxication.
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Careless driver who killed Wick toddler avoids prison
A woman whose careless driving caused the death of a Wick toddler has escaped a prison sentence.
Two-year-old Iain Mackay was asleep in a booster seat in the back of a Peugeot 208 when Sonya Henderson’s car crashed into it.
Wick Sheriff Court heard that Henderson, 42, failed to maintain proper observation and her Nissan Quashi crossed into the path of the other vehicle on the A99, 12 miles south of Wick, on August 22 2021.
Aberdeen man jailed after bloody knife attack in high-rise lift
An Aberdeen man has been jailed after he admitted stabbing a man in a high-rise lift while robbing him of drugs.
Zoltan Anderson pled guilty to the offence, which happened two years ago on the 15th floor of Beachview Court in Seaton.
Police traced Anderson after following a trail of blood at the scene.
Woman goes on trial accused of murdering man in Aberdeen high-rise flat
A woman has gone on trial accused of murdering a man in an Aberdeen high-rise flat.
Elizabeth Sweeney is facing a series of charges that allege she violently assaulted Neil Jolly, 51, before repeatedly striking him to the head and body with a kettle at a flat in Marischal Court.
She is additionally accused of trying to conceal the murder by washing Mr Jolly in a shower and covering his body with a duvet cover.
The charges further claim Sweeney, 36, then cleaned the kettle in an attempt to destroy evidence.
North Sea peeping tom back in court for secretly spying on woman, 65
A pervert who secretly filmed a colleague undressing on a North Sea rig has been caught being a peeping tom again 10 years later.
Andrew Thomas appeared in court this week and admitted concealing a phone camera inside a vase of flowers to spy on a 65-year-old woman in her bedroom.
It was found to hold more than 40 hours of intimate recordings of the woman in varying states of undress.
Peterhead SNP activist fined after confronting daughter’s bullies with metal baton
A Peterhead SNP activist has been cleared of attacking a youth with a metal baton after the boy threw an egg at his young daughter.
David Birkett appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court to stand trial on charges of assault and possession of an offensive weapon.
Birkett admitted the weapons charge and, after CCTV of the incident was viewed, the Crown accepted a not guilty plea to the assault.
Sheriff Craig Findlater told Birkett that his actions “made matters worse, not better”.
Stonehaven man avoids jail after being snared by undercover cop
A Stonehaven man who was snared by an undercover police officer posing as a 12-year-old boy has been tagged and given community service.
Luke Craddock avoided jail after admitting three charges of having indecent images of children, distributing some of those pictures and enticing a child to look at indecent images.
Some of the disturbing images were considered to be in the most serious category.
Watch: Aberdeen van driver’s A90 road rage caught on camera
A convicted Aberdeen drug dealer – once dubbed the Deliveroo of cannabis cookies – has been banned after admitting his part in a road rage incident on the A90.
Van driver Paul Jessiman was travelling at around 70mph towards roadworks with a 50mph limit when he collided with the other van as he pulled into the right-hand lane.
Traffic ground to a halt and Jessiman, 26, was caught on the other vehicle’s dashcam when he got out and aggressively gesticulated, before driving off.
Already on nine points, Jessiman, from Aberdeen, was banned from the road for 11 months.
Sacked Aberdeen barber in shop assault on former boss
A barber who was sacked on his first day on the job returned to the shop and violently assaulted his former boss.
Mohamed Meskini appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted attacking his former employer at The Fade Factory, Aberdeen, after asking for his job back and being turned down.
There was a further argument between the two men over who owned some newly purchased clippers and scissors.
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Teen found guilty of setting fire that destroyed Elgin Poundland
A teenager has been found guilty of setting a fire that destroyed Poundland in Elgin and cost in the region of £1 million.
The boy was just 15 when he lit sanitary products in the health and beauty aisle of the High Street store and it spread to nearby shelves of aerosols, causing a series of explosions.
It was accepted that the damage caused was likely to result in an insurance claim in the region of £1m.
Aberdeen haulage firm fined £241,000 after unsecure load kills passing motorist
An Aberdeen haulage firm has been fined more than £240,000 for safety failures that led to the death of a motorist.
George Moran, from Arbroath, was killed and his wife seriously injured after a load being carried by Colin Lawson Transport’s lorry came loose and stuck his car on the A92 St Cyrus to Montrose.
The large mooring buoy hit the 53-year-old’s passing Kia Picanto, causing him to take evasive action and crash.
Church youth leader found guilty of sexually inappropriate behaviour with boy, 14
A nurse and youth group leader has been found guilty of sexually inappropriate behaviour with a teenage boy from her church.
Lauren Middleton was 28 at the time of the offending and the teen was just 14.
The offending took place at the boy’s home address and while Middleton was on a holiday with the family in England.