Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases – from a vengeful employee who torched his workplace, to a man who committed a sex act outside Co-op because his erectile dysfunction meds began working a little too well.
On Monday, a driver who was high on cocaine and alcohol when he killed a father and seriously injured his teenage son in a horror crash was jailed for seven years and six months.
Fisherman Andrew Montgomery was on bail at the time for drink driving when he caused the crash on Skye in August 2018.
The 33-year-old drove his Audi Q7 at high speed and on the wrong side of the road.
The teenager was so badly hurt, he could not be there for his dad’s funeral.
Rapist jailed for decade of attacks
A rapist who spent more than a decade subjecting women to a series of terrifying physical and sexual assaults has been jailed for seven years.
William McGregor, 32, attacked the females at locations in the Aberdeen area between June 2009 and February 2020.
He was brought to justice after police learned about his activities and launched an investigation against him. He was arrested after his victims plucked up enough courage to speak to police officers.
Man pinned officer to ground and tried to kiss her
A man who pinned a female officer to the ground and tried to kiss her will be sentenced next month.
Craig Scott was “rambling incoherently” under questioning by cops when he made a break for it and ran through his garden.
Officers gave chase and it was then he ran at the woman, knocking her off her feet.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told it took a number of officers to remove him.
Man guilty of Findhorn inferno
A man burned down buildings at a Moray eco-village and caused £400,000 of damage in revenge for being made redundant.
Joseph Clark, who had been employed by the Findhorn Foundation for 16 years, torched the community centre he managed and another building earlier this year.
On Tuesday Inverness Sheriff Court heard the 49-year-old was to be made jobless and homeless on the day he reduced the buildings to rubble.
A cleaner spotted the flames about 2am on April 12 and alerted the emergency services.
Hotel manager’s drink-drive chaos
A drink-driver caused chaos during a half-hour rampage around the city’s streets while more than four times the legal limit.
Anna Ziomek left a trail of destruction and shocked road-users in her wake as she drunkenly drove around the city on the way back from a pal’s house in the early hours of the morning.
The 28-year-old had left the boozy get-together after a fallout at around 2am and decided to get behind the wheel and drive across the city centre to her home in Clifton Road.
Fine for brutal domestic abuser
A thug who chased and hit his girlfriend with a belt after she trailed mud into the house has avoided jail.
Zbigniew Kulik grabbed the woman and repeatedly punched her to the head, chasing her while armed with a belt, swinging it and making contact with her arm.
The woman, who had accidentally dirtied the living room carpet after being outside, picked up a knife to defend herself during the incident, with Kulik inventing “fairy stories” by telling social workers she had hit him with it.
Mum drove under the influence of cannabis
A mum-of-two who got behind the wheel of a car during lockdown while under the influence of cannabis has been banned from the road.
Carol Charles was almost three times the legal cannabis drive limit when she drove along A90 between Ellon and Aberdeen on May 12, 2020.
The unemployed 29-year-old was pulled over by police near Ellon as part of a random check before officers noticed she was clearly under the influence of drink or drugs.
Brother tried to smuggle drugs into prison
The brother of a Highland death crash driver was coerced into helping smuggle £1,000-worth of drugs into Perth Prison.
Kirkhill man Scott Cameron feared his younger sibling Martin could be harmed if he did not agree to post a parcel containing nearly 300 street Valium tablets to an inmate at the Fair City jail.
Martin Cameron was locked up for four years and eight months for causing the death of his friend in a horrific crash near Inverness in 2018.
Dad tried to ship drugs to Shetland
A dad who had £14,000 of cocaine and heroin delivered to Shetland so he could sell it is facing prison.
Richard Johnson, 44, was granted bail and had sentence deferred after admitting the offences at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that police had received intelligence regarding a suspect package from a delivery company in Glasgow.
Man in court after erection meds unexpectedly sprang into action
A van driver was spotted performing a sex act in a Co-op car park – after his erectile dysfunction medication sprang into action unexpectedly.
Kenneth Cowie was left in pain after his meds began working a little too well, and was forced to pull into the car park of the Co-op on Colpy Road, Oldmeldrum.
The 61-year-old was parked up and pulled a hi-vis jacket over his lap, but was spotted with his left hand underneath it “making rapid movements”.
Topless Grandad, 77, taunted waitress
On Thursday, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the case of a grandad who didn’t take kindly to being ordered out of a cafe for not wearing a face mask.
Eric McKenzie, 77, whipped off his top and taunted the waitress at Bothy 57 in Kirkton of Skene, saying “who’s going to make me?”
The pensioner finished his coffee outside and went inside to speak to some friends, but was challenged by a member of staff about not wearing a face mask.
Interpol busts mum’s fake sextortion plot
A mum-of-three attempted to dupe police and Interpol by claiming she was the victim of a £65,000 international extortion plot at the hands of her rich French lover.
Tracy Barron, from Ballater, claimed her oil worker ex-boyfriend had attempted to extort the five-figure sum from her by threatening to release intimate pictures of her to family members and the press.
The multi-national deception even saw Barron, 46, convince a pal to post her fake extortion letter back to Scotland from Paris.
Married man targeted in dating site extortion plot
Another sextortion plot ended up in court on Thursday when a dad-of-two pretended to be a woman on a dating site so he could demand money from the married man he was communicating with.
James McLaughlin, 28, used the false name Jade Young to register on the site in mid-January 2020 and struck up a conversation with his unsuspecting victim.
As the online chats continued, photographs were exchanged but things took a sinister turn when McLaughlin demanded money.
‘Drug-induced psychosis’ caused oil worker’s horrifying attack on mum
An offshore worker who almost killed his mum in a vicious Hogmanay attack was suffering from drug-induced psychosis at the time, a court heard.
Ronald MacIver, who was earlier convicted of attempting to murder his mother Alexandra at her home in Edinbane, Skye, in December 2018, was jailed for 10 years today after a judge told him the evidence of his guilt had been “overwhelming”.
At his trial in Glasgow, the jury heard evidence that the 50-year-old rig worker brutally attacked his mum after accusing her of being cheeky.
Tipper truck joyrider banned
A man who went on a drunken joyride with a tipper truck has been banned from the roads for more than three years.
Matthew Hill, 41, told cops he stole the truck from a building site on Wellington Road, Cove, because it “belonged to an ex-employer I didn’t like”.
When cops eventually caught up with him, on Charleston Road North, he was breathalysed and found to be twice the drink-drive limit.
