Our reporters sat in courtrooms across the north and north-east last week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Drug dealer locked up after Fraserburgh flat bust
An English drug dealer who sold cocaine and heroin from a Fraserburgh flat has been locked up for more than a year.
Tyrell Chambers-King, 26, was caught by the police on October 3 last year.
Officers had witnessed people entering and leaving a property on Bervie Road and seeing an exchange happen through a kitchen window.
Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard told the court officers confiscated wraps of drugs from a woman who left the property before they made the decision to raid the home.
Knife-wielding rap artist sparked police firearms incident
A hip-hop artist was supposed to be headlining an Aberdeen show – but instead found himself arrested after armed police were called.
Neriya Adiukwu appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted brandishing what onlookers described as a “large knife or machete” outside the city’s Lemon Tree music venue on August 16 last year.
Under the stage name Nezza, Adiukwu was due to be the main act at the Between the Lines showcase at the Lemon Tree – until things started to go wrong.
The court heard how armed police units quickly descended on the scene following reports of a man lunging at members of the public while clutching a knife with “a silver blade about 10 inches long” close to where the event was being held.
Thug jailed for cop’s career-ending attack
A callous thug who kicked a police officer in the face, causing him permanent eye damage and resulting in him having to retire from frontline policing has been jailed.
Dylon Guyan appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted assaulting the police officer following a violent altercation when police found him breaching bail.
As a result of the 19-year-old’s actions, the police officer had to go to hospital.
He suffered severe concussion, hearing damage and permanent eye damage – meaning he will never return to frontline duty.
‘Joke’ of a driving ban after victim trapped in car
A Peterhead man who caused an injured woman to become trapped in a car has been given a one-year road ban – a sentence she has branded a “joke”.
Josh Haggath was driving on the B9033 Fraserburgh to St Combs road on July 7 2022, when he pulled out on another motorist with insufficient time to do so and caused her car to collide with him.
As a result, mum of two Kelly Buchan became trapped within her own vehicle until emergency services could cut her free.
She suffered two fractured vertebrae and ruptured her spleen.
Jailed man’s stun gun disguised as USB stun
A man caught with a stun gun disguised as a USB device in Aberdeenshire has been jailed for five years.
Albert Blackmore left London for a fresh start in the north-east – but things went wrong when police raided his home in Queens Gardens, Huntly.
The 29-year-old was at the property on April 6 last year when police arrested him on other matters.
During a search, officers looked in Blackmore’s rucksack and found a stun gun along with other items.
Two accused of attempted murder
Two suspects are to stand trial in December charged with trying to kill a man.
Mark Virtue, 53, and Demi Dunlop, 31, are alleged to have attacked Graeme Fern on an occasion between March 18 and 20 2023 at a property in Elgin.
It is said they repeatedly struck him on the head with an “unknown implement”, punched him and inflicted “blunt force trauma”.
The attempted murder accusation states this was also to his severe injury and danger of the man’s life.
Wrongly released prisoner jailed for violent domestic abuse
A criminal mistakenly released from prison – then returned by police – has been jailed for carrying out a terrifying catalogue of abuse upon his former partner.
John Hendry appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted being in the midst of a cocaine-addled rage at his former partner.
He pulled a large knife from the kitchen drawer and uttered the chilling words: “You are going to die today”.
Hendry, 30, variously assaulted the frightened woman in front of her child before informing her one of them was going to die, and that she would have to choose.
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Travel ban for rich dungeon sex attacker
A depraved sex attacker used an Egyptian-themed underground lair at his Caithness house to abuse women, it has been revealed.
Kevin Booth, 64, recruited females from the UK and abroad to come to Lochdhu Lodge in Altnabreac, Caithness, and have so-called “punishment beatings” administered to them.
He also “violently whipped” women and girls elsewhere – “causing them extreme distress and pain,” new court documents show.
Wick Sheriff Court heard how the lodge – a baronial former shooting lodge and hotel – is in a “remote location” at the end of a 14-mile long private road.
Man accused of woman’s daylight assault
An Inverurie man has been remanded in custody following an alleged daylight assault in the town last weekend.
Lewis Ivory, 27, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court charged with one alleged domestic assault, one charge of being threatening and four breaches of bail conditions not to approach his ex-partner.
Ivory denied all the charges and was remanded in custody until his trial next month.
It is alleged he tried to contact the woman, who is not being named for legal reasons, by phone twice the week before last.
Fisherman denies endangering dolphins at Aberdeen harbour
A man is to stand trial accused of disturbing dolphins and pilot whales on four different occasions last summer.
Richard Greenhowe, 51, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to deny the four charges of deliberately disturbing the creatures between June 4 and July 30 last year.
Greenhowe is the skipper of fishing vessel Seacab, named within the charges as the boat used to carry out the alleged disturbances.
He is set to appear for trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in April.
Chef held knife to woman and said ‘I could kill you’
A chef who subjected three women to sexual assaults and told one of them “I’m always going to sexually harass you” has been spared jail.
Andrew Kerr also held a knife to a woman’s side and told her: “I could kill you right now if I wanted to.”
His solicitor told the court that Kerr had a “jocular” way of communicating not always within “normal social boundaries”.
Kerr, 36, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing on Tuesday.
Armed man’s ‘biggest siege Elgin has ever seen’
A man armed himself with knives, a kettle and cleaning powder and told police: “This is going to be the biggest siege Elgin has ever seen.”
Colin Grant, 44, barricaded himself inside his ex-partner’s Jasmine Drive home last May.
He told officers: “I’m going to kill the first one of you through that door – or you will have to kill me.”
The incident, which involved a firearms response unit, ended when Grant fell unconscious after taking “street valium” tablets.
London drug gang boss’ Aberdeen operation uncovered
A drug lord who sent children to other cities in a London crime enterprise has admitted bringing his dealing to Aberdeen.
Londoner Dean Alford was jailed for 11 years in 2016 after being convicted of dealing cocaine.
As part of that, the now 39-year-old recruited, groomed and trafficked six victims aged 14 to 19 to deliver drugs from the English capital to drug dens in Portsmouth.
The process is known as ‘county lines’ – when gangsters send predominantly young people away from their hometown to other areas of the country to commit crime.
Inverness hairdresser stabbed rival with scissors
A scissor-wielding stylist who went berserk in a barbershop and stabbed a rival hairdresser in the leg has narrowly avoided being sent to prison.
Mehmet Celik of Inverness was caught on CCTV bursting in salon and unleashing a frenzied attack on two employees at a barber shop in Perth.
The 35-year-old lost the plot because there were no photos of his friend – the salon’s previous owner – on the walls.
Perth Sheriff Court heard Celik suffered a drug-fuelled “meltdown” after watching the friend drown during a fishing trip in Turkey three years ago.
Teen raced through red lights during stolen BMW joyride
An Aberdeen teen has admitted dangerously driving a stolen BMW through the city last year at high speeds before crashing it into a parked car.
Lee McLaughlan was 17 at the time of the offence, which began on the city’s Lang Stracht and ended abruptly on Powis Terrace on November 9 last year.
Now aged 18, McLaughlan entered a plea bargain to admit one charge of dangerous driving.
The charge sheet stated the teen drove from Lang Stracht, to Rosemount Terrace, then Skene Square, Maberly Street, George Street at “grossly excessive speeds”.
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Nappy-wearing Snapchat creep propositioned girl
A man offered an underage girl money for sex – then sent another picture of himself wearing and soiling nappies.
Alex Bruce, 21, contacted his first victim, who was aged just 14, in the spring of 2023.
Bruce, of Mossend Place, Elgin, flattered the child with compliments – then offered to pay her £50 in exchange for sex, despite her being underage.
He then targeted a second girl.
Jilted Fraserburgh man previously sentenced for bombarding ex with 66 emails back in court again
A jilted Fraserburgh man sentenced last year for bombarding his ex with calls and emails has been back court again.
And, while Tomasz Wlochowski had no problem putting his former partner in uncomfortable situations, he was less keen to be photographed as he left court.
The 47-year-old Gray and Adams employee tried to evade our photographer after his latest court appearance.
He even went as far as trying to blend in among jurors from an unrelated trial as he left the court building.
Man had more than 2,000 indecent images of children
An Inverness man had more than 2,000 sick images of children on his mobile phone, a court has been told.
Police seized 28-year-old Connor Goodall’s mobile from him while executing a warrant and he provided officers with the pin code.
A subsequent examination of the device found 2,639 indecent images.
Of those, 498 were category A, featuring the most serious abuse.
Lossiemouth petrol bomber locked up
A man who set fire to a garden with a petrol bomb has been sent to detention for 16 months.
Craig McTaggart appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing last week.
He had previously admitted a charge under the Explosive Substances Act and one of wilful fireraising.
The charges relate to an incident on October 12 2023 when McTaggart, who was then 19, threw a petrol bomb into the garden of an address at Spynie Place, Lossiemouth.