Jed Boyd from Dundee, who triggered an armed police manhunt across the north-east of the city after he showed a Mecca Bingo worker in Douglasfield his machete, has been jailed.
Boyd later dropped the massive knife on Longtown Road, before retrieving it and waving it in a menacing fashion towards a taxi driver.
Armed officers and a dog team searched for him and Boyd was located. He had thrown the knife onto the roof of St Francis boxing club.
He pled guilty to weapon possession and acting in a threatening and abusive manner on October 21 at the bingo hall and October 22 on Longtown Road.
Boyd, currently a prisoner in Perth, has a background of mental health issues, defence solicitor Larry Flynn said.
Sheriff Paul Brown ordered Boyd to complete five months of an unexpired prison sentence and a further 27 months behind bars.
This was reduced from 54 months as Boyd had already spent the equivalent of an eight-month sentence on remand and pled guilty at the earliest opportunity.
The sheriff also imposed a supervised release order, meaning Boyd will be monitored for a year after he is liberated.
Death driver sentenced
A driver who caused the death of a pedestrian on Boxing Day after mounting a pavement in a Range Rover has been sentenced to unpaid work. Janette Henry’s vehicle struck Eleanor Ballantyne from Dundee and relatives as they had their traditional family gathering in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, on Boxing Day in 2019.
Maximum unpaid work
A man who floored a female police sergeant in Dundee has been handed the maximum unpaid work sentence.
Ionut Lacatus returned to Dundee Sheriff Court after admitting assaulting Sergeant Kirsten Kiddie at Roseangle on March 18 last year.
The 30-year-old spat on the officer before kicking her on the body and knocking her to the ground.
Lacatus then behaved abusively at the locus and at police HQ by shouting, swearing and repeatedly making threats of violence towards police.
He also repeatedly kicked the inside of a police vehicle.
Lacatus, now of Paxstone Crescent in Harthill, was ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work in the next year.
He will complete the order in North Lanarkshire.
Sheriff Paul Brown said: “This is a serious matter and you’ve crossed the threshold for a period of imprisonment.
“I’m told that there is an alternative to imprisonment. I will impose that but you should be under no illusions that it’s an alternative.”
‘Talcum powder’
Transport firm boss Benjamin Alexander, 28, from Balbeggie has been banned from the road after he was caught driving with cocaine in his system. When he was pulled over in Perth police discovered bags of cocaine and ketamine in his car and Alexander told them it was “talcum powder.”
Police threat
A 32-year-old Fife man told police he would “kick their head in” if they didn’t have a Taser, after his mum called police due to his erratic behaviour.
Callum Ravenscroft, of The Roundel in Lundin Links, pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and acting in an aggressive manner and making a threat of violence on October 4 last year.
Procurator fiscal depute Lee-Anne Hannan told the court Ravenscroft had been out that night with his father, mourning the death of a friend.
The fiscal said his mother contacted police after he came home “highly intoxicated” and was “behaving erratically”.
Two police officers arrived and he said he would assault them if they came near.
Ms Hannan said he then challenged the officers to a fight and used words similar to, “if you did not have that Taser I would kick your head in”.
Defence lawyer David Cranston said Ravenscroft, as well as mourning the loss of someone, had also met with his then girlfriend to end the relationship and he became upset after she apparently threatened him.
Mr Cranston pointed out that his client, a trainee tree surgeon, had not offended since 2020 and has addressed a past drug problem.
He was fined £400.
‘Hunter’ hunted
An Angus pervert who admitted downloading hundreds of indecent images of children told police when they raided his home he was a paedophile hunter rather than a predator. Fergus Barclay, 20, spent ten months gathering vile material but told officers he had been on YouTube at his former family home in Brechin to hunt predators..
Serial rapist
A serial rapist who subjected three women to sex attacks in Fife was jailed for crimes spanning a decade.
John Weir, 29, assaulted his first victim when he was a teenager and after molesting her at a house in Kirkcaldy, raped her.
Weir went on to rape a second woman on two separate occasions at addresses in Lochgelly and Kirkcaldy.
Weir, of Edinburgh Road, Penicuik, Midlothian, told the woman: “It’s your fault I am angry.”
A third woman was raped and subjected to a life-endangering assault at a house in Kirkcaldy when she was seized by the neck and throttled.
Weir, who uses the name Krogan, had denied a series of charges during a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but was found guilty of three assaults and rapes, an assault and rape to the danger of life and a further indecent assault committed at an address in Gorebridge, in Midlothian.
His offending began between October 2008 and March 2010 and ended with him molesting a woman in Gorebridge in 2020.
Lady Drummond deferred sentence to obtain a background report but remanded Weir and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register.
Dundee drug mule
A Dundee man caught with cocaine worth up to £32,200 in his car told police he was offered £350 to transport it to the north-east of Scotland. After receiving a tip-off police officers stopped Ross Bree, 31, on the A98 and recovered 258 grams of cocaine from a rucksack in the footwell.
‘Crunching’ face
A teenager who attacked a bus driver and left him with a broken cheekbone has been ordered to take part in a rehabilitation programme for young offenders.
Aiden Milne was found guilty of an assault on the Stagecoach employee, while he was stopped for a break in Alyth.
The 52-year-old victim told a trial at Perth Sheriff Court he had been repeatedly targeted by a teenage gang in the town.
On February 2 2021, he got off the bus to “scare them off” and was struck in the face by then-16-year-old Milne.
Mr Robb’s horrific injury only emerged days later when he went to hospital to complain about a constant crunching noise inside his face.
Milne, now 18, returned to court for sentencing.
He further admitted a later assault at The Square in Meigle on May 18 2021, attacking his victim from behind, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly kicking him to the head and body.
Solicitor Mike Tavendale, defending, said his client is now being supported by the Right Track programme for offenders aged 16 to 24.
He was placed on a structured deferred sentence.
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