A drink-driver who was “too scared” to take public transport home after a night of drinking has been banned from driving.
David Gordon, 55, had been in the Keys Bar in St Andrews when he called the police after youths had begun abusing him.
He spoke with officers, who said they could do little and the same officers then spotted him when he drove past them a little while later behind the wheel of his Ford Tourneo.
They conducted a roadside test and he was found to be almost three times the limit (61mics/ 22).
Defence solicitor Anika Jethwa said following the abuse in the pub, her client was scared of getting the bus back to his home on Redcroft Place, Leuchars.
Sheriff John Rafferty disqualified him for 12 months and fined him £330.
£100k thefts
An ex-Army sniper staged a series of high-value jewellery and whisky raids in Perthshire while on the run from open prison. Garry Roughley, 41 – who had tied up and robbed a pensioner in Fife – got away with more than £76,000 worth of watches, rings and jewellery after staging two break-ins nearly a year apart at an antiques centre near Doune and more than £25,000 of goods from a store in Tyndrum.
Rapist appeal fails
A teenage rapist jailed for six and a half years after attacking vulnerable victims lost a bid to have his prison sentence cut after claiming it was “excessive”.
Jordan Dunn, 21, carried out three rapes on two girls and sent sexual communications to a third underage child during a four-month period when he was aged 18 in 2019.
The judge at his trial, Gillian Wade QC, imposed a total extended sentence of 10 years, including a three and a half year period when he will be monitored in the community.
Dunn appealed against the sentence, maintaining he required to be sentenced as a young person and the prison term imposed should be reduced.
But Lord Matthews, who heard the appeal with Lady Wise, at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected the legal challenge.
Lady Wise pointed out Dunn, formerly of Sea Road, Methil, continued to deny responsibility for the rapes at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Details of the trial can be found here.
Revenge porn
A spurned mistress who posted “revenge porn” pictures to her secret lover’s wife has been ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work. Beauty therapist Agne Balciene from Dundee had an affair with a married man and sent graphic pictures of her illicit lover to his wife on her birthday.
Family affair
A father-son duo threatened to beat up a man in front of his child
Ryan Russell, 43, and Lennon Russell, 22, admitted acting in a threatening and abusive manner outside the Gourdie Road home of their victim on February 9 2020.
Ryan Russell further admitted recklessly damaging a window frame there, costing £100 in repairs, on the same date.
Sheriff John Rafferty fined Russell senior, of Buttars Place, £370 and Lennon, of Elizabeth Crescent, Carnoustie, £397.
Terrifyied taxi drivers
Fife former Paratrooper Thomas McCabe, terrified a female taxi driver by showing off his “spectacular” decommissioned weapons. It was the second time the 77-year-old from Leven had scared a taxi driver by showing off the guns when he lured them into his house to pay his fare.
Not guilty
A 47-year-old Fife woman has been acquitted of assaulting another woman to her severe injury and permanent impairment.
Lynsey Thomson went on trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court accused of repeatedly punching and kicking Shirley Gemmel on the head and body.
Thomson, who works in behavioural support in a secondary school, claimed she acted in self defence during September 7 2019 incident at her then-home in the Delgatie Avenue, Glenrothes.
She told the court in one instance she pinned down her drunk victim to “protect herself” after being assaulted in her living room for telling her to be more respectful.
Thomson said Ms Gemmel left but returned later that night to apologise.
She said: “I let her back in and it’s my biggest mistake.”
She claimed Ms Gemmel struck her twice above the ear after the conversation turned sour and she reacted on impulse by elbowing her, deflecting her blows and punching her.
Thomson said she was able to defend herself on both occasions having completed training courses in ‘social crisis intervention’.
She denied stamping on or kicking Ms Gemmel on the floor.
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith found Thomson not guilty of the charge but said he found much of her evidence to be rehearsed and “incredulous”.
The sheriff said, putting this to one side, he was not satisfied the prosecution had proved guilt to a reasonable standard.
