A sheriff and jury trial could again be held in a Highland court – but for one week only.
About four years ago, the interior of Tain Sheriff Court was re-organised to create a new public access as well as accommodate security improvements.
It resulted in the jury room being converted into the Sheriff Clerk’s office and jury trials ended. They are now only held on the mainland in Wick and Inverness.
But at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, it was decided to ask permission for a jury trial to be held there as “a one-off.”
A 29 year old Alness man, Christopher Golabek is facing a serious sex offence charge and his trial was scheduled to take place in Wick.
However it was decided to move it to Inverness after concerns were raised about his fitness to travel such a distance.
Yesterday at Inverness Sheriff Court, those concerns re-surfaced about his ability to travel to Inverness, with Sheriff Margaret Neilson lamenting the closure of Dingwall Sheriff Court in 2015.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said that his office had suggested to Sheriff Principal Derek Pyle to re-open Tain just for this trial.
Mr Urquhart said: “The response was ‘that ship has sailed.’ But I will make another bid to explore using Tain.”
Sheriff Neilson and Golabek’s defence counsel Lorenzo Alonzi both agreed it would “make sense” as Tain was closer to Alness than Inverness.
