A man who started a fire in his bedroom at a Perth nursing home has been ordered to carry out 130 hours of unpaid work.
Kyle Wilkie set alight a pile of papers on his bedside cabinet at the city’s Ark Brae Home on October 23 last year.
The 23-year-old was helped into the garden of the Fairies Road facility, while firefighters arrived to extinguish the blaze.
Wilkie, now of Bute Drive, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted a charge of wilful fireraising.
Sheriff Gillian Wade warned Wilkie the sentence was a direct alternative to custody.
Another conviction
A thug from Dundee has been convicted of injuring his partner by striking her over the head. Jurors returned a guilty verdict against previous offender Daniel Mudie, 41, at Forfar Sheriff Court.
Killer’s prison weapon
Caithness killer Paul Cannop has been caught with a handmade weapon behind bars.
The 28-year-old, who was jailed in 2019 for murdering his friend over a £40 drug debt, has admitted possession of an offensive weapon at HMP Perth on January 5.
Former surf champion Cannop pled guilty by letter to having a padlock in a sock.
Sheriff Mungo Bovey deferred sentence until April 28.
In July last year, Cannop was caught with an illicit SIM card.
In November 2018, he stabbed 32-year-old Paul Fairweather following a confrontation at a house in Thurso.
The High Court in Glasgow heard the murder took place just a day after the two men were seen arguing with each other over a drug debt.
Cannop had been awake for three days at the time of the confrontation and was high on a cocktail of crack cocaine, Xanax and Valium.
He inflicted a fatal blow to the left side of Mr Fairweather’s chest, which went through the sac round his heart and cut his pulmonary artery.
Cannop was told he will serve at least 17 years in prison.
High-value coke block
A drug mule was stopped by Fife police while transporting cocaine worth as much as £81,000. The block carried by Stefan Milne was more than twice the purity of the class-A drug normally bought on the street. The 39-year-old had been paid £1,500 to collect the package from England.
‘Calamitous’ speeding
A Kinross car mechanic has lost his job after he was caught roaring down the M90 at 112mph.
Robbie Dodds, 21, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted speeding in a 2002 Nissan coupe near the Crook of Devon section of the motorway on February 25 last year.
He was fined £750 and banned for 45 weeks.
Fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton said that police on mobile patrol clocked Dodds’ speed at 8.36pm.
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: “This offence is calamitous for Mr Dodds as he works as a car mechanic.
“On this occasion he had bought a new car and was on the way to a friend’s house to show it off.
“He was very foolish.”
The court heard Dodds had found new work as a customer assistant at a local shop.
True-crime podcast
A businessman spotted with his phone in his hand as he passed a serious accident in Fife told a court he was “listening to a podcast”. Derek Rutherford passed the smash on the A92 on December 8 2021, while holding up his phone. He was originally charged with dangerous driving but pled guilty the the lesser charge of driving carelessly.
Knife fight challenge
A 21-year-old Rosyth man has pled guilty to brandishing a knife while challenging someone to a fight.
Troy Burk appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to admit behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in the town’s Kings Road on October 15 last year.
He also admitted being unlawfully in possession of the knife.
Sheriff Charles Lugton deferred sentence on Burk, of Rosyth’s Forker Avenue, until May 17 to obtain background reports.
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