The trial of an Italian tourist accused of culpably and recklessly killing another member of his shooting party in Perthshire was delayed by a day.
Having begun on Friday, Franco Moroni’s trial was expected to resume at the High Court in Dundee.
He is accused of culpably and recklessly killing Marco Cavola in a fatal shooting during a pigeon hunting excursion at Rossie Estate in March 2019.
Mr Cavola’s family were in attendance in court on Monday morning but the interpreter booked to translate for his loved ones was ill.
Lord Clark said ensuring Mr Cavola’s family could follow the evidence outweighed other interests and paused the evidence.
The trial is due to continue on Tuesday.
Stalking police officer
Dundee police officer Andrew Caulfield faces being sacked after subjecting a colleague to a nine-month long campaign of harassment after she ended their relationship. Caulfield, 47, admitted carrying out a sustained course of domestic abuse against the police constable and defying a court order to stay away from her after he was initially arrested and appeared in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Social media sales to pals
A young Perth drug dealer caught with more than £4,600 worth of cannabis peddled his product on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.
Michael Macdermid, 21, told police that most of his friends were also selling “things” online.
He appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis on December 1 last year.
Fiscal depute David Currie said McDermid was woken at his Goodlyburn Terrace home by police and told his room was about to be searched.
He said: “The accused stated that he had stuff in his chest of drawers, alongside a sum of cash.”
Officers found more drug paraphernalia behind a padlocked door, including weighing scales, snapbags, money, a laptop and herbal substance in a tub.
Mr Currie said the total amount of cannabis recovered had a street value of £4,630.
“The accused was interviewed and fully accepted he was concerned in the supply of drugs.
“He stated that most of his friends were involved in selling things.”
Asked to explain his operation, Macdermid told police: “It’s straightforward. I smoke what I need, then sell the rest.”
He said, since he stopped work, he had been selling cannabis on social media sites including Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram to 15 to 20 people but said he was not sure how much money he had made.
He was handed a six-month deferred sentence and ordered to undertake the Right Track programme for young offenders.
Crack party lorry driver
A lorry driver who had a crack cocaine party with two women the night before he blacked out behind the wheel on the notorious A92 in Fife has been banned from the roads. Allen Kerr may have been suffering the combined effects of cocaine, insomnia and diabetes, a court heard, after he was found to be more than 15 times the legal limit for the Class-A drug when he was stopped on the A92.
Biting bike thief
A Dundee bike thief drew blood when he bit the finger of a neighbour who spotted him making off with gardening equipment.
Jacek Turek admitted theft and the assault on August 2 last year.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard a witness watched Turek emerge from a neighbour’s shed in an Inverary Terrace garden with a bike and among other gardening kit, a leaf blower.
He contacted the owner and the two went out in search of Turek.
They found him in Lawton Road where, after a struggle, the 29-year-old bit one man on the finger.
Solicitor David Duncan said his client was “effectively homeless” at the time and had no income.
He added Turek suffers cognitive difficulties which stem from a brain injury.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael sentenced Turek to concurrent three-month prison sentences for each offence.
Serial sex offender
After having sex with a 15-year-old, creepy Kyle McLean was found by police at Perth’s unpaid work HQ, where he was already being punished for sexual misconduct towards a different child. McLean was 19 at the time he took advantage of the youngster at his Alyth home, just weeks after being handed an unpaid work sentence for causing a person under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
Dog thief back behind bars
A Blairgowrie dog thief jailed last year is back behind bars after admitting careless driving.
Clifford Hodgkins appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted driving a Honda Civic “erratically” through hazardous wintry conditions in Blairgowrie.
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding said police spotted the 41-year-old on Coupar Angus Road on January 15 2021.
“At the time the road was covered with snow and ice and there was poor visibility.
“Police described the accused as driving at speed on the road in an erratic manner.“
Officers activated their blue lights and observed the accused’s car overtaking another vehicle at speed, heading towards the town centre before losing sight of it
Hodgkins was later caught driving into a cul-de-sac.
Sheriff John MacRitchie imposed seven penalty points and fined Hodgkins £500.
His solicitor David Holmes requested no time to pay on behalf of his client, meaning Hodgkins must serve the equivalent sentence of 14 days in prison.
In June, Hodgkins, of Woodlands Park, was jailed for 118 days and banned from keeping animals for two years after he was convicted of snatching four dogs from outside their homes in rural Perthshire.
The thefts featured in our documentary examining the toll of dog thefts on owners in Tayside and Fife.
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