Weekend court roll – our round-up of the most-read cases of the week

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

Thug attacked ex with baseball bat after she sent him photo of another man’s legs

A jealous ex hit a woman over the head with a baseball bat then trashed her flat after she sent him photos of another man’s legs in her bed, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard on Monday.

Aaron Jack attacked his former girlfriend after the pair split up and she urged him to “move on like she had” before sending him a photo of another man’s legs.

The 40-year-old “saw red” after their three-year relationship came to an end in September 2019 and he believed she was seeing someone else.

He sent the woman multiple abusive text messages calling her a “coke heed” before flying into a rage when she sent him one back containing a photo of another man’s legs within her bed.

Yob attacked friend with dumbbell bar – then stabbed him four times

A row over a backpack saw a thug attack his friend with a dumbbell bar before stabbing him multiple times.

Leyton Davies, 23, admitted attacking the man at an address on Don Street, Old Aberdeen, on August 9 last year following an argument over a missing rucksack.

The row ended with Davies striking the man on the head before repeatedly plunging a knife into his leg.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Davies had left his belongings at the man’s home for safekeeping but turned on his pal when one of his bags seemed to be missing.

Student caught with sickening haul of ‘sadistic’ sexual images of children

An Aberdeen student has avoided prison on Tuesday after being found with more than 3,700 indecent images of children – many of which were described as “sadistic”.

Sean Christie, 26, admitted being in possession of thousands of pictures and videos of young boys and girls within a Cloud application on his mobile phone between July 17 2017 and December 4 2020.

The images discovered by police on Christie’s Apple iPhone involved children as young as six months right up to 15 years of age.

Many of them were found to include children engaged in “sadistic sexual activity” and taking part in sex acts with animals and adults.

Thug battered man with golf club and frying pan – then called himself ambulance

A violent thug brutally beat a man with a plank of wood, a golf club and a frying pan in an Aberdeen flat – then called himself an ambulance.

Jordan Stuart, 20, admitted repeatedly assaulting his victim at Bradley Terrace in Aberdeen by striking him with a number of household items while also kicking and punching him.

The man was left stumbling in the communal stairwell with blood running down his face.

And Stuart, despite having delivered the savage beating, called an ambulance for himself, claiming his knuckles had been cut during a fight.

Pensioner repeatedly called ambulances – then abused staff

A pensioner made repeated 999 calls – then abused emergency workers when they tried to help him.

Ronald Gell, 72, called the ambulance service claiming first to have injured his arm, and then to have collapsed, but each time emergency service workers arrived at his home he was uncooperative or abusive.

He also made repeated calls to emergency call handlers in which he swore and abused them, causing the calls to be terminated.

The pensioner’s calls eventually became such a nuisance staff reported it to the police.

Buyer battered with baton as Inverness drug deal goes wrong

An addict ended up on the wrong end of a police baton after picking up a knife as he visited an Inverness property to buy drugs.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard 41-year-old addict Stewart Rattray, of Upper Kessock Street, had gone to a nearby property to buy drugs on July 28 last year.

Sheriff Sara Matheson was told that the routine for the transaction was to go to the window and hand over the cash.

But defence solicitor Marc Dickson explained that his client told him the knife had been on the window sill outside and he picked it up.

‘Naive’ man left in debt after letting fraudsters use account to receive scam cash

A ‘naive and stupid’ man who allowed fraudsters to use his bank account to store £20,000 of stolen cash has been left thousands of pounds out of pocket, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday.

Ethan Robertson allowed a chain of conmen to use his bank account for gathering cash handed over by a victim of their scheme.

The then 19-year-old believed he’d make a “small amount of cash” by helping with the scam but wound up with £20,000 being paid into his account in August 2017.

That came after the fraudster’s victim, who believed he had been contacted by Barclays bank, was told to go to his local branch, transfer £20,000 and tell the staff there the cash was going into his son’s account.

Man downloaded indecent images of children ‘out of curiosity’

A 20-year-old Moray man who downloaded indecent images of children being sexually abused told police he did it “out of curiosity”.

Cameron Thomson, of Cameron Drive, Keith, also denied to officers that he was “sexually attracted to children” after 401 images were found on his mobile phone.

At Inverness Sheriff Court, Thomson admitted possessing the images, 54 of which were category A, the most serious, involving girls aged between 10 and 15.

He also pleaded guilty to distributing three of the images.

Aberdeen teen told to apologise to ‘love rival’ who she punched in teeth

A teenage girl who caused horrific facial injuries to her so-called love rival has been told to apologise to her victim for the brutal attack.

Abbie Seivwright punched another woman so hard in the face that she needed an operation to fix her teeth back in place.

Seivwright, who was also 16 at the time of the attack in May last year, pounced as she walked towards shops with friends on Marchburn Drive in Aberdeen.

She repeatedly punched the woman in the face, responding to her victim’s screams of “my teeth!” with swear words and claims that she “didn’t care”.

Farmworker denies inhumanely killing pigs – by hitting them with hammer

On Thursday, a farmworker denied allegations that he repeatedly struck pigs with a hammer and failed to “humanely euthanise” them.

Andrew Munro has pled not guilty to a total of five charges over his conduct relating to pigs at Yonderton Farm in Ellon.

He is now set to stand trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court next summer.

Two charges allege that the 47-year-old caused a pig “unnecessary suffering” by repeatedly striking it with a hammer, failing to euthanise it humanely, on January 2 and 6 this year.

Drunk flung microwave from 16th floor window of Aberdeen high-rise

A drunk butcher flung a coffee machine and microwave from the window of a 16th floor flat after a breakfast-time bender.

Jevgenijs Samsonovs flung his kitchen appliances out of high rise Cornhill Court in Aberdeen on Tuesday morning after an early-morning fallout with his girlfriend.

The appliances landed with a “loud bang” on the public footpath below, prompting a startled neighbour to call the police.

Fiscal depute Rebecca Thomson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court how the 36-year-old had started drinking at 5.30am and went on to argue with his girlfriend over her working hours.

Teen drank ‘extraordinary’ amount of booze and threatened to petrol bomb children

An Inverness teen threatened to petrol bomb police officers’ children after drinking a “quite extraordinary” amount of alcohol.

Glen Wilson, 19, threatened to “kick officers’ heads in” when they tried to prevent him entering a house, and then kneed one in the groin when they attempted to detain him in December last year.

Then in February, he told officers called to a drunken disturbance at his family home that he would “petrol bomb” their children and threatened to rape one officer’s wife.

Wilson, of Dochfour Drive, Inverness, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously pled guilty to charges of assaulting an officer and threatening or abusive behaviour.

Teen found guilty of rape and attempted rape of boys in Aberdeen

On Friday, a teenager who “preyed” on his victims was found guilty of raping and attempting to rape two children when he was 12 years old.

Declan Morrison, now 18, was found guilty by a majority of jurors at a High Court trial in Aberdeen on charges that he raped one victim at a play park in the Sheddocksley area of Aberdeen in 2015 when both boys were 12.

He was also found guilty by majority of attempting to rape an eight-year-old boy in the same year.

Morrison, who had denied the charges against him, will now be placed on the sex offenders register.

Thug given jail warning over role in gang mugging of Aberdeen reveller

A thug who admitted his part in a gang mugging in Aberdeen city centre has been handed a stark jail warning.

Maxwell Stewart is facing a prison sentence for the part he played in beating up and robbing a man during a vicious 3am attack.

The 33-year-old repeatedly punched another man in the face and head before making off with his wallet in the Rosebank area of the city on August 21.

His victim had previously been approached by a woman who tried to pickpocket him but when her attempts failed she gestured towards Stewart and a handful of others lingering nearby who assaulted and robbed him.

Two in dock following late-night break-in at Inverness Co-op

Two men have appeared in court charged in connection with a break-in at an Inverness convenience store.

The Co-op store on Telford Street was sealed off by police after it fell victim to a break-in in the early hours of Thursday morning.

And now Chandler Davidson, 20, of the Scottish Highlands, and Nathan Bell, 18, of Inverness, have appeared in private at Inverness Sheriff Court over the matter.

They each face a charge of theft by housebreaking.

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