Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Aberdeen duo on two-day drugs bender assaulted men and stole sandwiches
Two Aberdeen men who were on a 48-hour drink and drugs bender have been sentenced for their crimes.
Kane Carter, 19, and his co-accused Jordan Lepkowski, 21, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to a total of five charges.
It included attacking a man under Diamond Bridge in the city, attacking another man for drugs, and stealing food and electronic cigarettes worth £18 from a local shop.
Bolton man who took over Aberdeen house to sell drugs avoids prison
A Bolton man who was involved in taking over a woman’s home in Aberdeen to sell drugs has avoided a prison sentence.
Leon Sivalie arrived on the doorstep of a house in Mastrick on September 15 2023, and was arrested just days later.
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the woman living there had been promised money for allowing Sivalie and another man to stay.
But when she began asking for her guests to leave, the 19-year-old refused.
£13 million Aberdeen fraudster tells judge he is broke and homeless
A crooked Aberdeen businessman who made more than £13 million from his life of crime has told a court how he’s homeless and hasn’t got money to buy food.
Alistair Greig, 71, masterminded a money-spinning Ponzi scheme, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.
His scam sucked in dozens of individuals to place their funds in “guaranteed” high interest accounts.
Jurors found that Greig pocketed more than £13m of cash in the scam.
Man who threw rocks at passing cars branded a danger to the public
A Sandhaven man who threw rocks and bags weighted with stones at passing motorists has been fined more than £1,000 after being branded a danger to the public.
Scott Davidson drew the condemnation of Sheriff Annella Cowan today when he appeared for sentencing at Peterhead Sheriff Court.
The 48-year-old had earlier admitted to lobbing the items at cars in a series of incidents he carried out between March and July 2023.
Aberdeen man brutally attacked woman after refusing to leave house party
An Aberdeen man who out-stayed his welcome at a party has avoided jail after he attacked the female host.
Robert Davidson, 44, grabbed the woman by the hair and aimed punches at her head and body during the incident at a flat on Charlotte Street on March 5 2023.
Davidson’s victim had not previously met the 44-year-old, but he came along with some of the other guests, the court was told.
The group had been drinking and Davidson ended up falling asleep on the woman’s sofa.
Manchester organised crime gang’s ‘lookout’ jailed for selling crack in Aberdeen
A man who claims he was only a lookout for Manchester gangsters has been locked up for selling crack cocaine out of an Aberdeen home.
Casey Marsland was snared in an operation by Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and has now admitted to being concerned in the supply of the class A drug.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the 26-year-old played down his role in the drug dealing enterprise, which came to an end when police raided a flat in King Street in 2023.
Man jailed for deliberately setting fire which destroyed Aberdeen flat
A man has been jailed after he deliberately set fire to a sofa and mattress in his Aberdeen flat because he was “cold, hungry and angry”.
Sadiq Azad appeared from custody at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after admitting to setting the fire at his Palmerston Road address on January 6.
The 25-year-old had phoned emergency services himself just before 6pm but stated “I’m joking” before hanging up.
Aberdeen catfishing fraudster funnelled £230,000 to foreign bank accounts
An Aberdeen man has avoided jail after admitting to a string of catfishing frauds that raked in more than £230,000 from victims around the world.
Stephen Deans insists he did not gain financially from his crimes, claiming he was just a “mule” funnelling money to Nigerian and South American bank accounts.
The 64-year-old – who Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told is on the autistic spectrum – was “lonely” and had thought his online chats with the fraudsters were a way of “belonging to something”.
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.
St Cyrus child sex abuser locked up for four years
A paedophile who was caught after cybercrime investigators discovered he was using his home wifi to share sickening content online has been jailed.
Alan Moir, 43, was given a four-year term by judge Lady Haldane following a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Lady Haldane had earlier heard how Moir was brought to justice after the police received intelligence from staff at National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) organisation.
Westhill offshore worker jailed for raping woman in flat
A rapist whose attack on his victim caused her to run into a residential street half naked screaming for help has been jailed for seven years.
The woman had earlier dubbed her attacker, Westhill offshore worker Don Webley, “a beast” and pleaded for help in messages before she fled from the flat where she was subjected to the ordeal.
Webley, 43, of Mackie Place, Westhill, had denied raping the woman at his then home at a flat in Granton Medway, Edinburgh, on September 18 in 2022 and claimed in a special defence that sexual activity between them was consensual.
Former top boxer fined after threats to woman in Stonehaven
A former top international boxer has been fined after he made a series of threats to a woman in Stonehaven.
Commonwealth bronze medal-winner John Docherty appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted making threatening remarks to the woman on Thursday afternoon last week.
Docherty, 27, was driving through Stonehaven when a woman shouted something at him.
He then replied, calling the woman a “rat” and threatening to smash up her phone.
Man who sped away from police in Peterhead handed roads ban again
A disqualified driver has been banned again after he sped away from police when they approached his vehicle in Peterhead.
Edvin Korzov was sitting in the driver’s seat of a black Vauxhall Mokka near the Harbour Lights bar in January last year when he came to the attention of officers.
But when he saw them nearing the car, he attempted to escape.
Inverness mum stabbed man in revenge for trashing her home
An Inverness mother-of-four got revenge on a man she believed had trashed her house by barging into his home and stabbing him while he was half-asleep.
Clare Potts straddled her victim, Ross Grant, and stabbed him on the thighs before making off with his phone and £320 in cash.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told Potts was in the grip of addiction at the time and took her offending “to a whole new level”.
Court rejects woman’s legal bid to inherit Inverurie farmer’s multi-million-pound estate
A woman who claimed she had a “close relationship” with a north-east farmer who died without a will is not entitled to inherit most of his multi-million-pound estate, a court has ruled.
William Cassie, who was in his late 60s, died on January 27 2023, leaving behind an estate worth at least £2.6 million.
On November 17 2023, a court appointed his sister Lorna Mary Cassie to administer the estate in the place of an executor as there was no will.
Forres pensioner banned after crash left woman wheelchair-bound
A Forres pensioner whose “momentary loss of concentration” left a woman wheelchair-bound has been banned from driving for 18 months.
Gordon Thomson, a retired RAF firefighter, rear-ended a car near the junction of the B9101 with the A96 at Auldearn pushing it into the opposite carriageway and into the path of another vehicle.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told the 80-year-old is still at a loss to explain why he didn’t notice that the Toyota Yaris had slowed in front of his BMW.
The Yaris hit a Hilux towing a trailer, which detached and hit Thomson’s car.
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.
Inverness woman jailed after terrifying high-speed police chase
An Inverness danger driver who risked the lives of motorists and police during a terrifying high-speed pursuit has been told: “You are not living in a video game”.
Samantha Stewart, 36, weaved in and out of traffic on the wrong side of the road at speeds of more than 100mph during the incident on December 6 last year.
Her driving was so dangerous that traffic cops were forced to call off their pursuit, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Swerving drug-driver from Maud gets roads ban
h Simpson represented himself at Peterhead Sheriff Court on Monday after lodging guilty pleas to offences, including driving under the influence and driving a car with erroneous driver details.
The 55-year-old told the court he was not seeking any legal representation despite being warned of the seriousness of the charges.
Inverness domestic abuser threatened to kill ‘the love of his life’
A 22-year-old Inverness man who threatened to kill “the love of his life” and burn her mother’s house down has escaped a jail sentence and been ordered to stay away from the woman for seven-and-a-half years.
But Scott Smith, who was described as an Inverness prisoner, got a stern warning from Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald when he appeared before her for sentence.
She said he would “go straight back to jail if there is one slip-up in this community-based disposal”.
Teen denies paint and rock attack on Aberdeen mosque
An Aberdeen teen has denied attacking a mosque by throwing a rock through its window last month.
Jayden Wallace, who was aged 17 when he was arrested for the vandalism at the Aberdeen Mosque and Islamic Centre (AMIC), has since turned 18 so can now be legally named.
Wallace appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court today accused of hurling the rock and also throwing white paint over the Spital building some time between March 15 and 16.
He pled not guilty to the crime and a trial date was fixed for later this year.
Dornoch soldier handed marching orders from the roads after drink driving
A soldier from Dornoch has been handed his marching orders from driving after admitting to getting behind the wheel of his car while drunk.
Jake McLaughlin, a serving officer, had been driving on Elgin’s West Road at about 11.35pm on February 28 this year when he was spotted by police pulling into a petrol station.
Fiscal depute Shay Treanor told Elgin Sheriff Court this week that McLaughlin, 21, admitted he had been drinking as soon as the constables questioned him.
“He said he had consumed alcohol a couple of hours prior,” he said.
Aberdeen one-punch killer sentenced to seven years in prison
A man has been jailed for seven years today after he killed an Aberdeen dad with one punch following a drunken brawl outside a city centre pub.
Derek Pearson was convicted last month of killing father-of-seven Steven Johnson, who fell and hit his head on the pavement on Carmelite Lane on March 12, 2023.
A jury at the High Court in Aberdeen found 47-year-old Pearson guilty by majority of culpable homicide.
Repeat Aberdeen drink-driver admits offence ‘yet again’
An Aberdeen man caught drink-driving for a third time has been spared jail.
Richard McAllister, 57, admitted driving his white Peugeot 2008 whilst almost five times over the limit on King Street earlier this year.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that McAllister has two previous convictions for drink-driving dating back to 2016 and 2019.
Aberdeen man sexually abused young girl so often it became ‘normal’
An Aberdeen man who “normalised” the sexual abuse of a young girl in addresses across Buchan has been found guilty following a four-day trial.
Keith Grant, who was standing trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, started his campaign of sickening attacks when the youngster was just seven years old.
The 44-year-old preyed on her between 2014 and 2017.
A second charge against Grant of sexually assaulting another pre-teen girl was found to be not proven.
Prolific Aberdeen drug dealer back behind bars
A repeat heroin trafficker who lost a leg because of drug abuse was jailed for six and a half years today after he was caught with £3,000 of the Class A narcotic.
A judge told Colin Gillies at the High Court in Edinburgh: “If anyone should know why diamorphine (heroin) is a controlled drug it is you.”
Lord Matthews said Gillies has “an appalling record” and told him: “You were involved yet again in the supply of diamorphine.”