A man who attacked three police officers during a New Year’s Day disturbance in Blairgowrie has been placed on curfew.
Ryan Matthews behaved in a threatening or abusive manner at his Emma Street flat and at the town’s Cottarshade.
He threatened to pick up a knife and approached one officer with clenched fists, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
Matthews, 27, was found guilty after trial of repeatedly assaulting PC Jamie Smith by kicking him on the leg to his injury.
He also carried out repeated attacks on constables Gary Polson and Grzegorz Nowaczyk.
He also struggled violently with the officers and placed a hand under his body to prevent them applying handcuffs.
Sheriff Francis Gill told Matthews: “You have been convicted of serious offences.
“These officers were there to help you. They were concerned for your welfare.”
Matthews will have to stay at home between 7pm and 7am as part of a three-month restriction of liberty order.
He was also placed on supervision for a year and told to work with social workers to address his alcohol issues.
Three times drink-driver
Broughty Ferry joiner Wojciech Szyszka has been banned and had his car forfeited after drink-driving three times in 35 days – each time being caught with a higher reading. Dundee Sheriff Court heard his fiancee twice called police to report him.
Jailed
A Fife dad has been jailed after admitting a string of offences, including supplying cannabis on multiple occasions and dangerous driving.
Bruce Millar drove a car at excessive speed in Kirkcaldy’s Bennochy Avenue, failed to stop for a marked police car and drove off-road on an area of grass at Linton Lane, on November 6, 2020.
The 25-year-old also pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of cannabis on the same date at Linton Lane, as well as driving on various roads without valid insurance.
Millar was also caught dealing the class B drug on another two occasions – in Kirkcaldy’s Tiree Place in May 2020 and the town’s High Street in 2019.
The 25-year-old also admitted a number of other offences which included threatening and abusive behaviour, driving without insurance and breaching bail conditions to stay at home during certain hours.
Millar, who appeared for sentencing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court via videolink from prison, was jailed for a total of 22 months and banned from driving for three years by Sheriff James Williamson.
Bus death trial
Fife bus driver Michael Gillespie has gone on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of causing the death by careless driving of passenger Elizabeth Colville, 82, in Frechie in April 2019. The charges state the pensioner hit her head when Gillespie braked “violently” and died three days later.
Police headbutt attempt
A 27-year-old Fife man has admitted assaulting a police officer and attempting to headbutt him.
Steven Hutton, of Forth Gardens in Oakley, pled guilty to the charge when he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
The incident took place at Dunfermline Police Station on November 6, 2020.
Hutton also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting and swearing at police officers in the town’s Haig Crescent on the same date.
Sheriff Charles Macnair adjourned sentencing until April 20 for background reports.
Racist rant
Perth man Shaun Morrison was reported after calling a friend the n-word during a FaceTime chat. He also admitted breaching Covid-19 regulations by being outside his home in April 2020, during the early days of lockdown.
Appeal success
Appeal court judges have taken two months from the prison sentence of Dundee man William Hutchison.
Hutchison was jailed for “unpleasant offences” committed at Ninewells Hospital on April 20, 2020 including attempting to kick a nurse on the head and body and singing sectarian songs.
The repeat offender, with six racial or religious aggravations among his many offences, had been sniffing gas and had no memory of the events which saw him imprisoned for 11 months when he appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court in January.
Without discounts for his early plea, Hutchison would have ben jailed for 14 months and appeal judges have ruled this to be incompetent – the maximum term available to the sheriff in this instance was 12 months.
In a ruling issued earlier this month, the judges stated: “We are satisfied that the present aggregate sentence cannot stand, but we are equally satisfied, as was the sheriff, that this was a serious case with wholly unacceptable behaviour directed at hospital staff who were undertaking a responsible and difficult job and that
plainly required to be reflected in the sentence passed.”
Cash Converters discovery
Darren Douglas from Dundee pawned his phone after installing software on it to hide his sickening stash of child abuse material. Police raided his flat and later recovered the phone from Cash Converters in the city.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
