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.

Ex-RAF serviceman to be sentenced for sick baby abuse

An ex-RAF serviceman who posed as a film stuntman to persuade a woman to make videos of her sitting on babies for his sexual gratification will be sentenced next year.

Andrew Kerr, 36, incited Gemma McFee to carry out assaults on youngsters under the age of two with promises of payment.

He also tried to get a second woman to carry out similar abuse by sitting or standing on a child.

The fiend was also found to have had child abuse material on devices at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

Independence march trial delay

A Scottish independence campaigner facing court over a march in Aberdeen has had his case adjourned following funding difficulties.

Gary Kelly is facing two charges under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act in relation to an independence march held in Aberdeen on August 17 2019.

The 46-year-old denies the charges, which allege he failed to arrange a temporary traffic regulation order and have in place public liability insurance.

Kelly, of Drummore Road, Glasgow, was not personally present when the case against him called at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, but defence agent Peter Keene appeared on his behalf.

The great train swindle

A woman who duped model train collectors out of more than £300 has been ordered to pay them back after her Facebook con went off the rails.

Kelly Madden posted model trains for sale on a Facebook buy-and-sell page and accepted two payments totalling £239 from a delighted enthusiast before failing to send him the goods.

She also conned another model collector out of £60 using the same method, Peterhead Sheriff Court heard.

Her first victim exchanged messages with Hadden for more than a fortnight in January and February last year before they agreed prices for the collectable items.

Abusive boyfriend in court

An abusive ex-boyfriend has admitted tormenting his former partner by turning up at her work, acting aggressively and criticising her choice of clothes.

Cameron Scott, 24, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he pleaded guilty to two charges of behaving in a manner that would cause the woman fear or alarm between June and August 2018.

He also admitted acting in an abusive manner towards his ex-partner by using derogatory language, repeatedly messaging her and turning uninvited to her home between and December 2019 and January 2020.

Fiscal depute Tom Proctor told the court that the pair had been in a long-term relationship which had broken down due to “numerous arguments”.

Hospital workers attacked

A man has been jailed after he attacked security guards at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

David McEwan, 36, carried out the attack on the two men after mixing alcohol and what he thought was diazepam on April 17 last year.

However, McEwan told Aberdeen Sheriff Court he does not actually believe it was diazepam he bought but “something else”.

He admitted kicking one security guard on the head and attempting to bite him and attempting to kick and bite another guard on duty.

Man punched mum

A man who violently attacked his mother and was later found with a knife in Aberdeen has been handed a fine.

Maksims Proskurins, 21, punched his mother to the head after she refused his demands to use her mobile phone on October 3 2019.

He was found later that day with a knife on a public street in the Kittybrewster area of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told Proskurins was also ordered by a court to stay away from the street where his mother lived – but defied the order less than a month later.

Drink driver got stuck on a dyke

A drink driver who was giving his grandfather a lift crashed his car and got it stuck on top of a dyke.

David Gillespie was already banned from the road at the time but got behind the wheel of his grandad’s car after it was agreed he was “least drunk” of the two.

The 29-year-old, who had served less than two months of a previous roads ban when he crashed the car, was so drunk he struggled to stand up straight, Peterhead Sheriff Court was told.

As well as drinking lager and vodka, the nightshift worker had smoked cannabis.

Football fan’s celebrations sparked riot police

On Tuesday, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told how a drunken football fan’s overexuberant celebrations when Scotland won a match sparked a three-hour standoff with riot police and negotiators.

Morgan Murray had been watching the Scotland v Czech Republic game at his flat on Glenbervie Road in Torry and got overexcited and vocal when his team won 1-0, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.

The Nations League win at Hampden came just a month before Scotland beat Serbia on penalties to qualify for a major tournament for the first time in 22 years.

A neighbour called police when the 37-year-old’s noisy celebrations stretched into the early hours.

Karaoke singer’s assault on music critic

A karaoke singer has been fined after assaulting a fellow reveller who insulted him after his performance.

Darren Stephenson’s victim was left needing hospital treatment after the 29-year-old pushed him outside McNasty’s on Summer Street, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head.

The pair had earlier clashed inside the venue when Stephenson finished performing karaoke and the man made rude remarks towards him.

But when the bar closed, the man again approached Stephenson, who pushed him, causing him to fall and hit his head on the road.

Boxer in stand-off with police

A row over a broken window escalated to the point that riot police and negotiators were called to deal with a boxer.

Craig Dick became abusive when officers attended his property on Balnagask Road responding to a reported disturbance.

The 34-year-old boxer shouted and swore at the police and refused to let them inside.

Eventually, a negotiator was brought in, and when riot police also turned up Dick decided enough was enough and opened the door.

Stalker started again when he came out of prison

A man jailed for stalking his ex-partner resumed his harassment just weeks after his release from prison.

Arturs Lontons served a seven-month sentence for sinister threats made against his former partner and the court ordered him to stay away from her for five years.

The jilted lover was jailed in July 2020 after stalking the woman and threatening to hurt her cats if she didn’t get back with him.

The 28-year-old bombarded her with phone calls, voicemails and texts over the course of three months, threatening to turn up and cause a scene at her work and to smash up her flat.

Terrifying hostage situation

A man got into a high-stakes standoff with armed police when he abducted his girlfriend and held a knife to her throat.

Engineer Erik Cameron, 36, provoked a major police incident on June 10 last year when he refused to let the woman leave and told cops he had a gun at a property in Inverurie.

Police, who negotiated with Cameron for hours when he barricaded the entrance with a bed frame, eventually had to break down the door and taser him twice.

He pleaded guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to 11 changes, including abducting and detaining a woman against her will, brandishing a hammer, seizing her by the neck and pinning her to the ground and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

Health and safety fine for quarry firm

On Wednesday a quarrying and construction company has been fined £130,000 over health and safety failings uncovered in the wake of a worker’s death.

Machine operator Pawel Kocik was crushed to death at Leiths (Scotland) Ltd’s Kishorn Quarry in Wester Ross in 2017.

The subsequent investigation into the 34-year-old’s death uncovered a number of health and safety breaches at the Highland quarry.

Inverness Sheriff Court was told that none of the failings that Leiths (Scotland) Ltd admitted caused the dad-of-one’s death.

Career criminal locked up

A man who has acquired more than 40 convictions during his life of crime has been sent to jail for more than six years for dealing heroin.

Colin Yeats, 39, was arrested at his home in Fraserburgh’s Charlotte Street after police found quantities of the drug there.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how officers swooped on the address after receiving intelligence that Yeats and another man called Paul Crawford were involved in the narcotics trade.

Prosecutor Greg Farrell told judge Lady Carmichael that Yeats had two convictions for dealing heroin and cocaine.

Racist attacker in court

A racist thug who brandished a knife at a man and shouted the ‘n-word’ at him says he would never have carried out such an assault had he been sober.

Steven Smith brandished a knife at the man on Union Street on November 14 last year before pursuing him into a convenience store where he punched him in the face.

He also used the racist slur on multiple occasions during the assault.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how an argument had broken out between the two men on Union Street but when the victim saw Smith had a knife in his hand he fled into the nearby shop.

Attacker caught after social media posting

A man who head-butted his girlfriend and forgot about it only learned of his horrifying assault when she posted pictures of her injuries on social media.

Michael Hannah, 39, appeared in the dock and admitted violently attacking his partner on Union Grove, Aberdeen, following a drunken argument on July 10 this year.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Hannah handed himself in to police after discovering his then-partner had published pictures on social media.

In court Hannah pleaded guilty to one charge of assault, pursing the woman, striking her on the body and head-butting her to her injury.

Animal cruelty charges

Two people have appeared in court accused of keeping more than 35 animals – including dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits and birds – in an Aberdeen flat.

John and Victoria Symon are alleged to have committed a string of animal welfare offences at their home on Seaton Gardens.

It’s alleged they caused unnecessary suffering to 16 cats and nine kittens,  seven guinea pigs, a lurcher named Pepper, a Labradoodle named Jade and a Yorkie named Bono.

It is further alleged that they kept an excessive number of animals – including rabbits, chinchillas, birds and a hamster – inside the property and that they failed to protect them from “psychological distress”.

Guitar collector assaulted girlfriend

On Thursday, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told about a guitar collector who chased and assaulted his girlfriend in the street after learning she’d pawned one of his precious instruments.

Peter Main flew into a rage when he realised his on-off partner of two years had sold one of his nine guitars for just £60.

And when the 50-year-old spotted her on Hayton Road he charged towards her and chased her as she tried to flee.

When Main caught up he grabbed and shook the woman, all in front of police officers who happened to be in the area responding to an unrelated alarm at a Nisa store.

30-year ban for serial drink driver

A serial drink driver has been handed a 30-year ban along after he was caught behind the wheel while more than three times the limit.

Vladimirs Rudoks – who has been disqualified on five previous occasions and will be 86 when the latest ban runs out – was also jailed for eight months after the sheriff said there was “no alternative” given his appalling record.

The 56-year-old construction worker has previously been disqualified in 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that when Rudoks was stopped by police outside Tesco in Inverurie on September 24 this year he gave a breathalyser reading of 74 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22.

Chef’s nasty glass attack

A Highland chef has been jailed for eight months after an “exceptionally nasty” glass attack on a man who refused to give him a cigarette.

Callum Hilson, an executive sous chef at Blackfriars Inverness, hit the man on the head with the glass in the early hours of the morning of October 3 this year.

Inverness Sheriff Court was told the 26-year-old was intoxicated when he reacted to being refused a cigarette.

Sheriff Gary Aitken said it was “an exceptionally nasty assault” and it was only the effect on his partner and two children that spared him from a lengthier jail sentence.

Joyrider locked up

A serial joyrider who crashed into parked vehicles has been handed a prison sentence.

Lukasz Humeniuk appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted a dozen charges related to taking vehicles without permission, joyriding, driving while in possession of drugs or on alcohol and giving false details to the police.

The court heard how the 30-year-old got behind the wheel of one vehicle that did not belong to him on Linksfield Court, Aberdeen on November 9 last year and drove it around.

When stopped by police he gave a false name and address.

Teenager on attempted murder charges

A teenager allegedly attempted to murder his ex-partner and a police officer, as well as slashing a police dog.

Joshua Sutherland is accused of using an axe to try to kill the woman in St Andrews, before stabbing an officer in the chest at a hotel.

The 19-year-old, originally from Inverness but currently of no fixed abode, made no plea when he appeared from custody at Dundee Sheriff Court.

It is alleged Sutherland attempted to murder a woman at an address on Winram Place by striking her on the head with an axe on October 24.

Stalker give neighbour the finger every day for months

On Friday we told the story of a stalker who walked past his elderly neighbour’s house and gave her the middle finger on a daily basis for months.

Pensioner Yan Murray targetted his female neighbour, who is in her 70s, with a campaign of harassment over the course 14 months between July 2019 and September 2020.

The 67-year-old, whose behaviour was described by his own solicitor as “bizarre”, walked past her home on Thorngrove Avenue in Aberdeen on a daily basis making the offensive gesture.

He also threatened the woman and branded her a fraud after seeing her without her mobility aid.

Dad’s petrol bomb threat to mum of his children

A dad has avoided prison after he threatened to petrol bomb his ex-partner’s home under the false belief she was holding his kids “to ransom”.

Dylan Stewart, 24, carried out a series of threatening acts towards the mother of his children between April 16 and June 12 this year.

He turned up at her door, made threats and smashed her windows on three separate occasions.

He pleaded guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards the woman, causing her fear or alarm and damaging her property.

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