Wednesday courts round-up – a Walter Mitty murderer and the man with a golden gun

By The crime and courts team

September 15 2021, 6:24 pm

Good evening – here are the stories that caught the attention of our reporters today.

Daughter’s dishes assault

A woman has avoided prison after she threw dishes at her mum’s head for asking if she was “okay”.

Nadezda Gerascenko flew into a rage two days before her 21st birthday over her mother’s attempts to console her and began throwing “multiple” dishes and wine glasses at her – causing permanent disfigurement.

Nadezda Gerascenko leaves Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

The incident left a laceration to her 63-year old mum’s head and bruising across her left arm.

Gerascenko pleaded guilty to two charges of repeatedly throwing glasses and plates at her mother and of causing her to suffer fear or alarm by acting in an aggressive manner.

Depraved predator preyed on children

A sex predator who tried to evade justice has been jailed for 11 years.

Colin Ritchie preyed on four children during an 18-year campaign of abuse.

One young victim was “groomed and corrupted” over many years and got to the point that he believed the sexual abuse was “perfectly normal”, the court was told.

The crimes mainly occurred in Elgin and Fochabers.

The 56-year-old had been due to face the allegations at a High Court hearing in March 2020.

But he failed to show before being eventually held in custody and hauled into the dock.

Man with golden gun sang Bond theme

A man who brandished a fake handgun at his neighbour while singing the theme song to Goldfinger caused armed response officers to be deployed.

Jody Bruce, 43, knocked on a former neighbour’s door at around 11pm on February 1st of this year and pulled the small black and gold imitation weapon.

Jody Bruce waved an imitation handgun at his neighbour

The incident in Anderson Drive, Buckie, was captured on CCTV, which showed Bruce asking his female neighbour whether she thought he was joking and then launching into a rendition of Shirley Bassey’s famous James Bond theme.

Murder confession was pack of lies

A man has admitted wasting police time after falsely claiming to have murdered a man in woodland near his home.

A major search was launched, involving police and coastguard teams, after Donald Macleod lied about stabbing a man to death in Blackmuir Wood, Strathpeffer.

Donald Macleod claimed to have murdered someone at Blackmuir Wood

Inverness Sheriff Court was told Macleod, 53, rang police to confess to the imaginary crime and even gave details of what he’d done to the man.

But, as Solicitor Advocate Shahid Latif told the court, this was a “Walter Mitty” crime and “he claimed to kill somebody that already was dead”.

Supermarket worker abused girls

An opportunistic sex predator who sexually abused and raped two young girls was jailed for eight years today.

Aberdeen supermarket worker Venceslau Dos Santos, 75, perpetrated sex attacks on the victims that had a “long-lasting” traumatic impact on the women.

Venceslau Dos Santos sexually abused and raped two young girls

The former soldier preyed on the youngsters at addresses in Aberdeen with the abuse of one girl beginning when she was aged seven and the other being molested and raped when she was 12.

A judge told Dos Santos at the High Court in Edinburgh that he was convicted of serious sexual offences against both of them.

Racist attacker pulled knife on shopper

A man who pulled a knife on an Aberdeen shopper has admitted using the n-word before carrying out a violent attack on his victim.

Steven Smith, 23, brandished a knife at the man on Union Street on November 14 last year before pursuing him into the City News Convenience Store where he punched him in the face while holding the blade in his other hand.