Police “stumbled” across a loaded air rifle during a search at a Fife man’s home.
David Smith, 40, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and pled guilty to possessing the weapon in February 2021.
Procurator fiscal depute Eve McKaig said officers found the loaded weapon as they searched Smith’s property.
Defence lawyer Susan Gibson said the air rifle, which contained pellets, had been lying in a box for a long time.
It had originally belonged to his brother and was used for target practice.
Ms Gibson said Smith, formerly of Catherines Wynd in High Valleyfield, had never used the weapon himself.
The lawyer said Smith is currently serving a 21-month sentence for an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
She said officers searched his home “looking for something else” while he was on bail for that and “stumbled upon this item”.
The solicitor said Smith, a welder, wants to leave his offending behaviour behind and get back to work following his release from prison.
Sheriff Charles Lugton sentenced him to 65 days behind bars.
Mirror cracked
A Whitfield man smashed a mirror in his home with a toy, causing shards of glass to shower a one-year-old child.
Jamie Lumsden, 23, admitted recklessly and wilfully destroying property at a property in Grampian Gardens last summer.
He lifted and damaged laminate flooring inside the house, Dundee Sheriff Court heard.
He further assaulted his former partner by throwing a liquid on her.
The court heard he then threw a toy at a mirror in the house, causing it to splinter into pieces.
These shards then showered a one-year-old girl, to the danger of her serious injury.
No reason was given to the court why Lumsden behaved the way he did on this occasion.
Lumsden, of Abernethy Road, will return to court for sentencing on April 14.
Sheriff Charles Lugton continued Lumsden’s bail order banning him from entering Grampian Gardens.
Army man smacked ‘difficult’ child
An army medic who hit a child so hard he left a handprint which lasted a week has escaped punishment after a sheriff said the child had been “difficult.”
Leuchars-based Staff Sergeant Michael Birkett, 42, was found guilty of attacking the boy when he was 12 years old by striking him on the leg to his injury.
He was admonished by Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon, who said: “This was a one-off. I can accept this was a situation where it was a difficult child – he said that himself. It was one strike to the leg.”
Birkett was cleared of attacking a second child and subjecting a former partner to a two year campaign of domestic bullying after the Regimental Chaplain gave evidence in his defence.
Sheriff O’Hanlon said he had doubts about the ex-partner’s “credibility.”
Tried to gouge out cop’s eyes
An Arbroath thug has admitted trying to gouge out a police officer’s eyes.
Liam Mann admitted the vicious assault at a hearing at Forfar Sheriff Court.
Mann, 23, injured constable Adam Honeyman during the attack at Arbroath’s Priory Crescent.
On July 30 last year, Mann attempted to punch the on-duty officer on the head before trying to gouge his eyes out.
During the attack, he scratched the officer on the face.
Mann also admitted assaulting two other constables – Daniel Wojtaczka and Deniss Kosacs – by attempting to punch them.
Mann, of Sidney Street, will be sentenced on May 4 after reports have been compiled.
Courtside celebrations
A Fife drug dealer caught with five kilos of cannabis whooped and celebrated outside court after he narrowly avoided imprisonment.
Aaron Hebner, from Kincardine, was caught with up to £18,000 of cannabis when his car was stopped by police in Rosyth.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard the 43-year-old had 5kg of the class B drug in his Ford Fiesta on September 28 2021.
At a sentencing hearing, he was handed the highest available unpaid work order as a direct alternative to custody.
He celebrated loudly on the steps outside court.
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