Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Needy boyfriend in court
A “jealous”, “needy” and “controlling” boyfriend demanded his partner “unlike” another man’s photo on Instagram.
Jamie Mutch’s “nasty, controlling behaviour” towards the woman over a nine-month period led him to the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
The 31-year-old monitored the woman’s use of social media and flew into jealous rages repeatedly, accusing her of infidelity.
Drink-driving school janitor
An Aberdeenshire school janitor is set to lose his job after being caught driving more than three times the legal alcohol limit.
Alan MacMillan was seen swerving across the A96 by an alarmed member of the public who alerted police.
Officers located the 42-year-old on the Inverurie to Huntly road near the junction with the unclassified Harlaw road.
Abusive Police Scotland cleaner
A cleaner for Police Scotland who repeatedly assaulted her fiance and boasted nobody would believe him because “police stick together” has been convicted of domestic abuse.
Monika Gauld fought with her partner of more than three years so regularly that he “struggled to distinguish” between the incidents.
But when he decided he’d had enough and called off their wedding she rounded on him, warning he was a “marked man” with her police colleagues.
Jealous partner threatened child’s babysitters
A jealous partner threatened his child’s babysitters with body bags and warned he’d put an axe in his ex’s new boyfriend’s head.
Christopher O’Sullivan made the threats and hundreds of calls and messages to his partner while the pair were on a “relationship break”.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the construction firm worker’s abusive behaviour began with repeated texts and more than 40 calls to the woman, despite her asking him to leave her alone.
Five-year ban for repeat drink-driver
A repeat drink-driver with a history of alcohol abuse has been banned from the roads for five years.
Andrew Hindes was found to be driving almost five times the legal limit in a residential area of Aberdeen.
During a routine police patrol on April 19 this year, officers discovered the 34-year-old was also driving his car without insurance.
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Man made fake social media profiles so he could harass ex-girlfriend
A man created fake social media profiles using his ex-girlfriend’s photo and then used them to contact her despite being repeatedly blocked.
Jayden MacClennan also kept phoning the woman and had friends make enquiries about her and didn’t relent – even when he was warned to stop by police.
MacLennan, 20, appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously admitted a single charge of engaging in a course of behaviour which was abusive of a partner or ex-partner.
Man found slumped in running car had cocaine in his system
A drugged-up man found “slumped” over the footwell of his car has been banned from the road.
Ian Kelman, 56, was spotted by police within his car with the engine running and his headlights on but slumped across the passenger footwell.
When officers approached his car on Provost Rust Drive he was unsteady on his feet and confused, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
I can’t believe it’s pot butter
A man has been jailed after he was caught with bags of cannabis that he intended to churn into butter.
Ramsey Smith, 25, was arrested by police in Aberdeen’s Rosemount Square with a backpack containing nearly 90 grams of cannabis.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that the cannabis was of “mixed quality” and that Smith had intended to turn it into “cannabis butter”.
Police found four bags of cannabis and packs of packs of diazepam within Smith’s bag.
Bouncer punched pubgoer’s face
A pub bouncer who hit a man in the face “overreacted out of fear” when he found himself surrounded.
Sean O’Reilly was ejecting a customer from the Church Street premises with a colleague when a group of people gathered around them.
Fearing that they were about to be attacked, door steward O’Reilly lashed out, leaving his victim with a cut above his eye.
Aberdeen terrorism trial told of ‘poisonous Muslim snake’ tweet
Police investigating alleged terrorism offences involving an Aberdeen man found IT devices with tweets about Muslims addressed to London mayor Sadiq Khan, a court has heard.
Cybercrime expert Charles Bruce told a jury how police found the social media posts during a probe into the activities of Richard Smith.
Mr Bruce told the High Court in Edinburgh that one of the tweets was found on a hard drive and it came from an account called @Richard_abdn.
It read: “Have you tried getting rid of the majority of Muslims yet @SadiqKhan.”
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Aberdeen food firm boss bought £700 of cocaine over ‘family stresses’
An Aberdeen food firm boss caught with £700 of cocaine had it to help cope with “family difficulties”, a court has been told.
Jordan Clarkson, of Premier Meal Prep, was caught with 16.3g of the class A drug when police raided his home on December 21.
The 27-year-old – whose family owns and runs a number of city pubs and restaurants including Soul, The Draft Project and Vovem – turned to the drug after going through “various family stresses”, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Two weeks before his arrest Clarkson’s older brother Paul was jailed for dealing cocaine.
Business graduate jailed after £45,000 worth of drugs found
A Brunel University graduate has been jailed after police found him with more than £45,000 worth of drugs at his Aberdeen flat.
Christopher Ihegbu, 56, has dozens of packages of drugs at his home on Wellington Street when police raided the property.
His solicitor told the Aberdeen Sheriff Court that Ihegbu, a business management master’s graduate, was holding the drugs as a favour for a dealer.
Paint store boss made £207,000 in fake refunds scam
A painting and decorating centre boss embezzled £207,000 in the space of just six months by carrying out fake refunds at the Aberdeen store.
Ryan Young, who was operations manager at Johnston’s Decorating Centre in the harbour area, transferred the money straight from the tills onto his own bank cards.
The sums of cash involved were so great that at one point he had to repay more than £30,000 so that the business wouldn’t miss its sales targets.
Building boss’ two-week campaign of violence against family and friends
A construction firm boss was behind bars today after a two-week campaign of violence and intimidation against his own family and friends.
Alistair Brownie’s bizarre behaviour included flashing his penis at his own mum, decapitating a toy dog, setting fire to the entrance of a friend’s home and attacking a Range Rover with a claw hammer.
The 35-year-old has now been locked up after he repeatedly breached an order to stay away from his mum at her home in rural Aberdeenshire.
Angler who was growing cannabis for ‘fish bait’ spared prison
A Banchory fisherman who claimed he was growing cannabis plants to use as fishing bait has been spared a “terrifying” prison sentence.
Trent Rudd was caught by police attempting to dispose of more than a dozen cannabis plants in his back garden after they paid a surprise to his home.
When quizzed by officers the 63-year-old insisted he had bought the seeds on eBay for innocent reasons and intended to use them to catch fish, not get high.
Police valued the plants at between £2,600 and £10,000.
Teacher unmasked as paedophile
An Aberdeen teacher has been placed on the sex offenders register after being found with 1,700 indecent images of children.
St Machar Academy technical studies teacher Blair Paton admitted possessing disgusting images of girls as young as five and later told police he wasn’t a danger to his pupils.
The 39-year-old’s haul of images was discovered after police received information that he had accessed child abuse pictures on a social media app, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
‘I thought mum flushed them’
A shocked teenager told police he thought his mum had flushed his drug stash after officers found hundreds of illegal pills in his kitchen cupboard.
Tree surgeon Dean Fisher invited officers to search his address on Baillie Drive, Alford, telling them that all the drugs had been disposed of.
But the 19-year-old was shocked when an officer opened a kitchen cupboard and found hundreds of pounds worth of Etizolam, a “valium-type” class C drug.
The stunned teenager exclaimed: “What the f***, I thought mum had flushed them.”
Fatal distraction
An Aberdeen worker who died instantly when he was struck by a forklift may have been distracted by his mobile phone, a Fatal Accident Inquiry has concluded.
Daniel Bagrowski, 30, suffered “multiple instantaneously fatal injuries” at a waste recycling facility in the Nigg area of the city on October 3 2016.
An FAI into Mr Bagrowski’s death heard that the married father-of-two “was not paying sufficient attention” when he turned his back on an approaching forklift truck.
100mph speeder had kids in the car
A man caught speeding in his Jaguar at 100mph on the A96 had two children in the car.
Police were following another speeder when they spotted Kenneth Mackay overtaking in his silver Jaguar, reaching speeds of 100mph.
When they stopped his car they discovered two child passengers as well as an adult passenger.
Late-night lift turned terrifying
A late-night lift home turned into a terrifying ordeal for one Aberdeen reveller when the kindly stranger who picked him up turned out to be a violent robber.
John Hendry spotted his victim drunkenly making his way home on Denburn Road and pulled his grey Vauxhall over to offer him a lift.
His target had no sooner buckled himself in when the atmosphere turned nasty and Hendry demanded he hand over his cash.
Inverness athlete convicted of rape
An Inverness athlete is facing jail after being convicted of raping a young woman.
Daniel McFarlane, who was previously one of the top performers in the Scottish universities and colleges track and field championships at Grangemouth, preyed on the victim at her flat in Glasgow’s Finnieston.
The 23-year-old, a former medical student, later contacted a friend to admit he had done “despicable things” – then tried to get him to delete the messages.
McFarlane denied the crime, claiming any admission of guilt was “false”.
Naked knife attack
A man who went to evict a prostitute from a flat in Aberdeen was stabbed in a violent confrontation with two naked women, a court has heard.
Mandy Nicol and the sex worker were unclothed when the vicious knife attack happened in West North Street on the afternoon of July 12 last year.
The man required hospital treatment after Nicol rained several “piercing blows” down on his head and arms.
Cruel fraudsters targeted 87-year-old man
Cruel fraudsters ordered a taxi to take their frail 87-year-old victim to the bank so they could clean out his account, a court has been told.
One of the scammers, Gary McKinley, from Glasgow, has now been jailed for his part in the heartless con, which saw almost £5,000 of the Aberdeen pensioner’s savings taken.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the fraudsters impersonated bank staff and convinced the OAP – who has since passed away – that his account was under attack and he must transfer his money into a ‘safe’ account.
Trans woman on domestic abuse charge
A trans woman assaulted her partner after hormone treatment led to “stresses” in their relationship, a court has been told.
Ryan Paterson, 28, grabbed her partner by the neck at an address in Aberdeen.
The incident was sparked by a row about alcohol consumption but came against a backdrop of both parties transitioning from male to female.
Cruise control crash
A mum and daughter had a lucky escape after a driver who was struggling with cruise control caused their car to flip into the central reservation of the A90.
Fraser Wilson, 39, ploughed into the rear of the vehicle as it slowed down to turn into a slip road at Lumgair, Stonehaven.
The collision sent the car tumbling into the central reservation.
Drink-driver had child in car
A woman who crashed into a roadside barrier with a child in the car was so drunk she had to be held up by officers to stop her from falling over.
Stephanie Wozniak, 30, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted being more than three times the drink-drive limit when she smashed her car into railings on Provost Fraser Drive, Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the collision caused extensive damage to the front of her vehicle.
Thankfully the child on board was unharmed as it was strapped into a booster seat.
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