Another bumper selection of court tales from across Tayside and Fife.
Date night
A drunken Perth woman sank her teeth into a female police officer’s hand after a date night with her husband ended in trauma.
Officers were scrambled to the city’s St John’s Street on February 25, after reports of a disturbance, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
Police came face-to-face with raging Claire Boyd, 38, who was “highly intoxicated” and “immediately hostile”.
Fiscal depute Elizabeth Hodgson said Boyd became verbally abusive as officers tried to establish what was going on.
“She began to behave irrationally,” said Ms Hodgson.
The court heard Boyd assaulted PC Rebecca Miller by bending her fingers back, and biting one of the digits, breaking the skin and drawing blood.
Boyd, of St John’s Street, further pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by being aggressive towards police officers, shouting, swearing and refusing to desist.
Solicitor Billy Somerville, defending, said: “This was a regular evening out with her husband. Clearing there was a substantial amount of alcohol consumed.
“She has never been in trouble before and is very unlikely to reoffend.”
Sheriff Gillian Wade fined Boyd £1,000.
“I appreciate you come to court as a first offender,” she told her. “But these are serious offences. They are extremely concerning, whether you are under the influence of alcohol or not.”
Double assault
A Crieff teenager with a boxing background attacked a rival on the playing fields at Strathearn Community Campus, and left him permanently disfigured.
Jack Rylance appeared at Perth Sheriff Court to plead guilty to a pair of assaults, including one on a 13-year-old boy.
The 18-year-old carried out the attacks at Pittenzie Road on May 29 in 2020.
He attacked the teenage boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, by punching him and knocking him to the ground.
Rylance, of the town’s Maxton Road, admitted that he attacked a man on the same date at the nearby playing fields.
Rylance then straddled the man on the ground and repeatedly punched him on the head and body before attempting to bite him on the neck.
He then bit the man on the body. After his victim had gotten to his feet, Rylance knocked him to the ground a second time.
Again, he repeatedly punched in on the head.
Court papers state that Rylance’s victim was left injured and permanently disfigured.
This week at Perth Sheriff Court, Rylance was found not guilty of another attack at Crieff’s James Square.
Jurors found him not guilty of seizing a man older than him and punching him, then repeatedly punching him when he was on the ground.
The jury agreed that he acted in self defence on September 4 in 2020.
Rylance will be sentenced by Sheriff Paul Brown at Dundee Sheriff Court on May 9.
Gangster loan shark
A self-styled “gangster” loaned money to desperate women and then threatened to rip their faces off when they couldn’t pay back double what they had borrowed.
James McPhee, from Crieff, advertised his amateur cash-lending services on social media.
He gave money to two local woman who were in financial hardship, but demanded they pay back twice the amount.
And when they were unable to pay, he made violent threats against them and their families.
He told them: “I’m a f***ing gangster.”
McPhee, 28, appeared via video link at Perth Sheriff Court on Thursday and admitted two counts of attempted extortion.
Pool attack
A Dunfermline man has been fined for attacking a fellow pub-goer after they played several games of pool together.
Kenneth Cathcart, of Drummond Place, admitted repeatedly punching Mark Brogan to the head and body to his injury as closing time approached in The Monarch bar on October 24 last year.
Procurator fiscal depute Michael Robertson told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that a bar tender broke up the fight and Cathcart, 40, left the scene and was later traced by police with blood on his arms and torso.
The court heard the victim was left with a small laceration to his left ear.
Defence solicitor Stephen Morrison said Cathcart was “not proud of himself” and “ashamed” to be in court for this behaviour.
Mr Morrison said his client put it down to the consumption of too much alcohol and that he could not recollect what sparked the aggression.
The solicitor added: “He takes full responsibility and is absolutely remorseful.”
Sheriff Robert More told Cathcart he is getting a “wee bit long in the tooth for this kind of nonsense” and fined him £300.
Drink driver could lose car
A Fife drink driver could lose his car after admitting to being behind the wheel while almost six times over the limit.
Stephen Bradford appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Thursday to admit driving on Citron Glebe in Kirkcaldy with 129 mics of alcohol in his system on March 19, above the limit of 22.
Bradford, of Station Road in Cardenden had his grey Peugeot seized by the Crown Office, and it could be forfeited entirely when he is sentenced on May 19.
Sheriff Maryam Labaki told the 55-year-old: “The reading is a very high reading,” before disqualifying him.
Taxi attacker thwarted
A man who tried to rob a taxi driver in Dundee’s West End was caught by an off-duty police officer driving home.
Douglas Laidlaw, 41, attacked Vojalech Kuchar in his car on October 20 2021.
He was stopped after the police officer noticed the vehicle stopped and “shaking” from side to side in the middle of the street.
Laidlaw, a prisoner at HMP Perth, admitted assaulting Mr Kuchar, as he worked as a taxi driver, on October 20 2021, near Step Row and Magdalen Yard Road.
He admitted seizing him by the body, struggling with him, searching through his pockets, doing so with the intent of robbing him and to his injury.
He was on a bail order at the time, which had been imposed just seven days earlier at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
We’ll be back on Tuesday evening after the long weekend. Have a great Easter!
