Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Ecstasy underpants
A man was caught with more than £1,000 of ketamine and ecstasy in his underpants – at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Kyle Torliefson had just been sent to custody after appearing at the city’s sheriff court – but was searched before being carted off to HMP Grampian.
It was during the search that staff found the illicit stash hidden inside the 32-year-old’s underwear.
Court delays criticised
A domestic abuser has been accused of “re-traumatising” his victim by repeatedly failing to turn up to court – more than two years after he pleaded guilty.
Nikki Brown, 43, still hasn’t been sentenced for persistently sending an excessive number of abusive and offensive texts to his former partner – despite admitting the offence in March 2020.
The latest delay in the case – which was first heard at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on June 13 2019 – came earlier this month, when Brown once again failed to turn up for his sentencing.
Ex-footballer admits danger driving
A former Ross County and Highland League player has been convicted of dangerous driving after seriously injuring a friend while giving him a lift home from the pub.
Steven Ross’ car ended up on its roof after crashing into a fence and trees on February 2 2019, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 28-year-old had been at a birthday party in the Vodka Revolution bar in Inverness and said he would give his friend a lift home to Tain.
Man accused of human trafficking
An Aberdeen man is facing court accused of illegally bringing someone into the country and forcing him to work for free.
Zbignew Matla appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court today facing charges under the Asylum and Immigration Act and Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act.
The 64-year-old, of Grandholme Court, Aberdeen, is alleged to have “arranged or facilitated the departure of a passenger from a country other than the United Kingdom” with the intent of exploiting him or in the belief that another person was likely to exploit him.
Handbraking the law
A man has been jailed after he released the handbrake of a stranger’s car in Aberdeen, causing it to roll down a hill and crash into a wall.
Mark Forrest, 33, was on a night out with friends when he saw a car causing an obstruction at the top of Shiprow.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Forrest then walked over to the vehicle, put his hand in the window and released the handbrake.
Woman on romance fraud charges
A woman is facing court over an alleged £238,000 romance fraud plot targeting an 85-year-old Aberdeen man.
Cheryl Joss, or Mitchell, 40, is alleged to have pretended to be in a relationship with the pensioner so she could take £28,387 from him in loans she never intended to pay back.
That charge alleges Mitchell contacted the pensioner through a dating website and pretended she wished to enter a relationship with him.
£10,000 of cocaine and heroin found in BMW
A man was caught with almost £10,000 of crack cocaine and heroin when police stopped his BMW at a petrol station in Aberdeen.
Alexander Law, known as Henderson, was caught when officers, who were aware of intelligence suggesting the BMW X3 was involved in transporting drugs, spotted him pulling into the BP garage on King Street.
And when officers searched the vehicle, they found 84.52g of heroin and 57.27g of crack cocaine stashed in the central console.
Ex-cop convicted of sex offences
A former Aberdeen police officer has been found guilty of sexual charges and indecent behaviour involving underage girls.
Gordon Raeper, who was a serving officer at the time of his offences, was convicted at Aberdeen Sheriff Court of four charges relating to girls as young as 12 between 1984 and 2004.
It took a jury of eight women and seven men less than two hours to find Raeper, 66, guilty of the majority of charges against him.
He was acquitted on one sexual assault charge and two physical assault charges.
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Supercar speeders banned
Two supercar drivers have been banned after being caught doing more than 100mph on a remote Highland road.
Noel Hendry, 48, was in his £200,000 McLaren sports car and Jason McBain, 50, was behind the wheel of his Porsche 911 when police clocked then at 106mph in a 60mph zone.
Lawyers for the two men described their actions on the A95 as a “moment of madness”.
Man assaulted cop after row over girl
A man ripped a police officer’s body armour and tried to headbutt him after getting into a fight with his cousin over a girl.
Fraser Sime had been drinking at his cousin’s house in Aberdeen when it emerged that he was seeing a girl his cousin had previously been in a relationship with.
The situation “escalated” and culminated in a brawl in the street at 4am, resulting in police being called.
Hospital worker stole from patient
A hospital worker stole a patient’s wallet and then used his cash card to withdraw hundreds of pounds from an ARI bank machine.
Occupational therapist Ismael Lavares pocketed the patient’s belongings then brazenly went to downstairs to a bank machine within Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and took out £500 in cash.
The 42-year-old appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted stealing from the man, who had been admitted to his ward after suffering a collapse.
Woman battered victim after taking potentially ‘lethal’ cocktail of drugs
A woman has been locked up after battering an acquaintance and stealing her jacket after taking a potentially “lethal” cocktail of drugs.
Olivia Rennie, who is also known by the surnames Ritchie and Morris, had been out for a walk in Fraserburgh with the woman and a third person.
But out of the blue, Rennie lashed out and began punching the woman in the face before wrestling her jacket off her.
Pond poisoner
Bad blood between neighbours led to one poisoning the other’s garden fish pond.
Colin William MacNeil poured a bottle of what is believed to have been household bleach into the pond in the early hours of March 25, Wick Sheriff Court heard today.
Fiscal David Barclay said the 38-year-old’s drunken act was captured on the motion-activated cameras trained on the back garden of a house in Mackay Street, Castletown.
Dad jailed for sustained attack on ex
A man repeatedly punched his ex-partner in the face and back of the head in a “sustained” attack after “losing control” in a row over child contact.
Daniel Youngson was under the influence of diazepam and “possible something else” when he visited his former partner to discuss arrangements to see his daughter.
The discussion quickly descended into an argument and Youngson, 31, was asked to leave her home.
Bar boss who posted ‘sex’ video cleared of crime
A “relieved” bar boss has revealed that police will take no further action over a Facebook video, which appeared to show two pub-goers having sex in front of her customers.
Michelle Ward, the owner of Number 44 Hotel and Bar in Stonehaven, has spoken of her “amazing sense of relief” that no one will be charged over Sunday night’s raunchy incident.
A police probe was launched after she posted CCTV footage of the uninhibited couple getting intimate, in an appeal for help to identify the man and woman and report them.
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Domestic abuser burst victim’s eardrum with slap
A violent domestic abuser burst his ex-partner’s eardrum in a terrifying assault on an Aberdeen street.
Ryan Massie subjected the woman to a campaign of sickening physical and emotional abuse spanning more than two years, both while they were in a relationship and after they split up.
The pair, who had been a couple for around seven years, frequently had arguments lasting hours and Massie, 29, was known to punch holes in doors and walls.
Grieving and thieving
A woman has been jailed after she went on a shoplifting spree across the north-east following the death of her “dedicated and reliable” dog.
Sharon Baxter, 53, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted a series of theft charges at shops covering the length and breadth of the region.
Baxter pleaded guilty to more than a dozen charges related to shoplifting and assault of shopworkers.
Driver jailed for horror heroin crash
An Aberdeenshire dad who caused a horror crash after smoking heroin has been locked up for “gambling” with the lives of other road users.
The family of Allan Lawrence wept in the public gallery of Aberdeen Sheriff Court as the 41-year-old was sent to prison for 18 months.
Lawrence had smoked heroin hours before the crash on the unclassified road between the B999 and B9005 near Ardlethen Farm, Ellon, and was seen by witnesses speeding and taking blind bends on the wrong side of the road.
Paedophile foster carer jailed
A former foster carer who sexually assaulted two children in the Highlands then left them too terrified to speak up has been jailed for two years.
Francis Ward was convicted after a trial of sexually assaulting two young and vulnerable girls between 2012 and 2014.
The 70-year-old had denied the offences but was found guilty by jury of kissing and touching one girl when she was just eight, and molesting a second victim from the age of 11.
An allegation that Ward, formerly of Dornoch, Sutherland, also raped the older girl was deleted.
Dangerous rapist may never be freed
A “deeply dangerous” rapist who has spent a “lifetime” subjecting women to horrifying violent sex attacks will be supervised for the rest of his life to protect the public, a judge has ruled.
Andrew Forbes, 55, preyed on three women, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at locations in Aberdeen between February 1982 and January 2003.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Forbes had previously served two jail terms for rape before police became aware that he had committed yet more sickening crimes.
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