Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Teen, 17, caused horror A93 head-on smash while checking phone
A 17-year-old girl had to be cut free from her car after causing a terrifying head-on crash on the A93 while checking her phone.
Alice Calligaris, who is now 18, was distracted by her mobile phone when she veered onto the wrong side of the A93 Ballater to Aberdeen road at Cambus O’May.
A car travelling in the opposite direction had no time to swerve to avoid a collision and the two vehicles ploughed straight into each other.
The couple in the other vehicle were both seriously injured but managed to get out of their car.
Bragging thief who stole pal’s Rolex escapes punishment
A cocky Aberdeen thief who swiped his pal’s Rolex – and then showed it off on Snapchat – has escaped punishment.
Sentence had been deferred on Brandon Phillips in June last year for him to prove he could be of good behaviour.
In the hearing in June, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Phillips, 20, swiped £900 from his friend’s bedroom as the pair socialised together at an address on Cruickshank Crescent, Aberdeen, on February 4 2021.
Man who brandished baton following taxi fare row spared jail
A man who brandished a baton at a taxi driver following a row over a fare has been spared jail at Inverness Sheriff Court.
William Williamson aggressively kicked the taxi’s door after he was asked to get out of the vehicle and then produced and extended a “police-style” baton, swinging it at the driver.
When officers arrived at the scene in Holm Dell Road, Inverness, Nairn resident Williamson, 20, told them: “He tried to charge me £75 for a ride home.”
Violent and controlling Aberdeen rapist to be jailed
A violent and controlling Aberdeen rapist who tormented three women with more than a decade of horrible abuse will find out his prison sentence later this month.
Callum Gordon, 33, raped two women and subjected a third to a demeaning sexual assault over the years.
Their ordeals began with his first victim at addresses in the Tillydrone area of Aberdeen in 2009.
Gordon repeatedly assaulted her, held her down, shouted, swore, threatened, and pushed her about.
‘He told me they were all vegetables’
A man has incurred the wrath of the courts and his unsuspecting mum by openly growing cannabis plants in her house and garden in Inverurie.
Steven McKay turned his mother’s Inverurie flat into a mini cannabis factory, all the while insisting to her that his new-found horticultural hobby was so he could grow vegetables.
But the brazen 29-year-old’s drug operation was rumbled when an eagle-eyed member of the public spotted a potted cannabis plant growing in the garden and swiftly told the police.
Officers investigated and found more plants soaking up the sun on a windowsill inside.
Million pound Aberdeen drug dealer jailed for six years
A drug trafficker who claimed he was holding more than £1 million of cocaine for a friend was today jailed for six years.
Jason Henderson told officers that the Class A drugs were due to be passed on to someone else the day after he was arrested.
Henderson, 31, was arrested on November 14 last year in Aberdeen after police received intelligence that he was involved in the supply of illicit drugs.
Couple accused of trespassing on tracks at remote Highland railway station
A couple have appeared in court accused of endangering train passengers’ lives by standing on railway tracks at a remote Highland station.
Ian Appleby and Elizabeth Howie allegedly interfered with the rail network by trespassing on the line at Altnabreac level crossing in Halkirk, Caithness.
The couple, who live next to the tracks, also faced charges of acting in a threatening or abusive manner towards two police officers.
Danger dog to die after aggressive owner set it on police officers
A sheriff has ordered the destruction of an “extremely aggressive” Staffordshire Bull Terrier after it was set on police.
Steven Kane let the dog attack officers when they turned up at an address in Aberdeen’s Stockethill Court to investigate an ongoing disturbance.
The dangerous dog clamped its jaws onto a female constable, leaving two puncture wounds, before officers retreated and had to arm themselves with riot shields.
Drug-dealing mum weeps as she is found guilty of causing baby son’s death
A mum sobbed uncontrollably in the dock as she was today found guilty of causing the death of her baby son.
Amy Beck was on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of exposing 13-week-old Olly-James to the party drugs mephedrone (M-cat) and MDMA, resulting in them entering his bloodstream before he died.
A jury took just over a day to unanimously convict the 32-year-old of the charge.
Hit-and-run pair in court after George Street attack
A thug ran over a man on a busy Aberdeen city centre street in a brazen hit-and-run in broad daylight.
Jeffrey Binnie mowed down Garry Black on George Street before co-accused William Hanratty brutally attacked him as he lay injured on the ground.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how Mr Black was carried across the street on the bonnet of Binnie’s car before the brakes were slammed on and he was thrown onto the pavement.
Binnie, 29, today pled guilty to the assault on Mr Black on February 27 2023.
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.
No jail for hammer thug who turned woman’s flat into drug base
A man turned up at a woman’s flat in Tillydrone armed with a hammer and forced her to allow him to use the property as a base to deal drugs.
Samir Mohamed, along with another male, made it clear that they would use the weapon if she did not let them deal cocaine and heroin from her Formartine Road home.
But Mohamed, 30, was later caught red-handed when police kicked the door down and raided the property.
Men in court after £19k heroin and crack cocaine bust
Three men have appeared in court after the police raided an Aberdeen property and uncovered heroin and crack cocaine worth £19,000.
In an intelligence-led operation, an address on Great Northern Road in the Woodside area was searched at around 1pm on Monday afternoon.
A three-figure sum of cash and drug paraphernalia were also recovered by police officers, who charged four men in connection with the seizure.
Man who went drink-driving to celebrate job interview success gets the sack
A man who went drinking after a successful job interview lost that same job after being caught drink-driving on his way home.
Craig Lennox, who was caught more than triple the legal alcohol limit, also carried out dangerous overtakes, skidded and almost crashed, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
The incident happened straight after the 55-year-old had been to a job interview.
Pubgoer ordered to pay fancy dress reveller £2,000 after sexual assault
A man who carried out a serious sexual assault on a woman in a Thurso pub and boasted about it soon after has narrowly avoided a jail sentence.
Michael Foubister, 45, was instead ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work.
He must also pay his victim – who was left distressed and in tears after the incident – compensation of £2,000.
Inverness knifeman told police: ‘You can’t go to Hilton without being tooled up’
A man who was caught carrying a large kitchen knife and a scalpel in Inverness told police he had them because people “can’t go to Hilton without being tooled up”.
Leslie Goodall, 43, was stopped and searched in a lane between Culduthel Road and Mackay Road after officers smelled cannabis, the city’s sheriff court was told.
It was then that officers found the scalpel followed by a “large kitchen knife” in his back pocket.
Goodall admitted having the weapons in a public place.
Sheriff bans Aberdeen alcoholic from drinking for a year
A sheriff has taken the unusual step of banning an Aberdeen alcoholic from drinking for a year after he drunkenly hurled a TV out of a first-floor flat window.
Abusive Michael Donoghue, who narrowly missed police officers on the street below, also tossed household items from the property on Kerloch Gardens during the disturbance last year.
The 37-year-old, who the court was told suffers from alcohol addiction, now faces a year of random breath-tests as an alternative to prison.
Dangerous driver ‘not in good frame of mind’ when she crashed
A dangerous driver crashed into traffic lights on the A9 and then failed to provide a sample for police, Inverness Sheriff Court has heard.
Kayleigh MacLeod, 36, failed to slow as she entered the 50mph zone heading north towards the Longman roundabout.
MacLeod’s Volkswagen collided with traffic lights before coming to rest on the roundabout.
Drunk man who sexually assaulted TikTok teen told he’s lucky to avoid prison
A drunk man who sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl who was filming a TikTok video in a shopping centre has narrowly avoided a prison sentence.
Martin Forgie, 35, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted being intoxicated at the St Nicholas Centre when he was approached by two teenage girls who started chatting with him.
The girls then began to record a video of themselves for the social media app TikTok, with Forgie in the background.
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.
Aberdeen paedophile travelled 300 miles to meet teen
An Aberdeen paedophile who travelled more than 300 miles to meet up with a 13-year-old girl has been jailed.
Ali Asghar appeared in the dock at York Crown Court where he admitted grooming the child by communicating with her and sending her indecent images and videos of himself.
The court heard the 20-year-old also requested that the girl send him sexual images of herself in return.
Stalker student spoke of ‘killing everyone’
An Aberdeen University student who became “obsessed” with a “perfect being” coursemate spoke of “killing everyone” when she rejected his advances.
Joachim Gornicki wrote the woman letters expressing his “avalanche of feelings” towards her – but did not take it well when he was rebuffed.
The 26-year-old said she had “ruined his life” and warned her the “kindest thing” he could do was not to come back and “kill everyone”.
Moray paedophile, 81, guilty of molesting girls in the 1970s and 80s
An 81-year-old man is behind bars after being found guilty of molesting children in the 1970s and 80s.
Alexander Florence had denied targeting two girls aged between 5 and 11 as well as indecently assaulting one of them when she was 16.
But, in evidence led by fiscal depute Robert Weir, a jury heard from his now-adult victims, who described how Florence had touched them intimately and sexually abused them.
Aberdeen mum who ‘immobilised’ police officer escapes punishment
An Aberdeen mum who “immobilised” a police officer during a violent assault has escaped punishment after behaving for a year.
Lisa Jolly, known as Ross, had gone to a flat on Balnagask Circle after her tearful daughter had called her upset about an unrelated incident.
Police were also called to the property and arrived in the block to find Ross, 44, and a number of others spilling out into the stairwell causing a disturbance.
Stonemason’s vile racist outburst is 67-year-old’s first conviction
A pensioner has found himself in court for the first time at the age of 67 after making a vile racist comment towards Union Square security staff.
John Milne had indulged in a boozy lunch before branding the security guards “d*****s” and suggesting they had come from a “banana boat”.
The stunned staff asked Milne what he had just said and the brazen stonemason repeated the slur.
Police later arrested Milne who was so drunk he had no memory of his outburst.
Brothers had blood on their hands after brutal Inverness street assault
Two brothers were left with blood on their hands after launching a drink and drug-fuelled assault on a man in Inverness.
Colin Williamson, 26, asked his victim: “What’s your problem?” before punching him in the face.
Together with his brother Shane, 21, he then repeatedly punched the man, leaving him bleeding from the face as they made off.
Inverness benefits cheat invented fictitious blind children
A benefits cheat swindled thousands of pounds from the taxpayer by inventing fictitious blind children in Inverness.
Colin Taylor made Universal Credit claims by inflating the number of children living with him and managed to boost his payments by pretending they were disabled and blind.
Between February 3 2018 and April 3 2019, Taylor fraudulently obtained more than £4,000 by taking advantage of the system designed to help those in need.
Member of public stops drug-driver leaving with child in car
A woman was caught driving under the influence of cocaine when passers-by became concerned for a child’s welfare and stood in front of her car.
Jennifer Fraser’s demeanour set alarm bells ringing for members of the public at Kittybrewster Retail Park – particularly due to having a youngster with her.
A number of witnesses raised concerns about the 45-year-old’s welfare and that of the child.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen and the latest crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group.
