A man has admitted assaulting a 16-year-old boy in a Perthshire village.
Charlie Fertacz, 29, admitted punching the youngster on the head and pushing him during a row in Stanley’s Perth Road on September 25 2021.
At Perth Sheriff Court, he admitted assaulting another man on the same date by punching him, knocking him to the ground and then kicking him to the body.
Fertacz, of Mill Street, Stanley, will be sentenced on July 5.
17-hour siege
A Dundee man shrugged off being tasered, pepper sprayed and hit with a rubber bullet before surrendering to police after a 17-hour siege in the city’s West End. John Simpson, 58, also brandished knives, threw rubbish from his flat window and told officers he would be sending them home in “body bags” should they enter his property during the two-day stand-off on Step Row.
Luggage thief
A train luggage thief must complete 210 hours of unpaid work after alighting with a stranger’s suitcase in Angus.
Craig Simpson, 32, of Castle Street, Montrose, previously admitted the theft of the suitcase and contents at his hometown station on October 19 last year.
Fiscal depute Sam Craib told Forfar Sheriff Court the case and its contents had a combined value of £1,035.
Lawyer Nick Markowski said his client had a “significant” record and “significant” drug addiction issues.
Mr Markowski added Simpson has “absolutely no recollection” of the offence.
The unpaid work was imposed as a direct alternative to imprisonment and must be completed within a year.
Guilty of sex attacks
A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of molesting a teenage boy while he slept at a house in Kinross-shire. Non-binary Lucas Cole, who was prosecuted under their old name, Oliver Bond, went on to sexually assault the same man twice over the next four years.
Lucky lorry crash
Drunk lorry driver Colin Kirk, 56, who crashed into a car in Dunfermline when he was more than six times the limit in an articulated lorry with a trailer attached,
He hit the back of a Vauxhall Corsa, stopped at traffic lights in Baldridgeburn
He earlier pled guilty at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to driving with excess alcohol (138mics/22).
The court heard previously he had driven more than 100 miles from Aberdeen before the incident and has since lost his job.
Defence lawyer Pauline McKenzie said he is due to take a forklift licence test with a view to securing employment in Aberdeen.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Kirk it was “extremely fortunate” the collision was not more serious.
He banned him for 16 months, fined him £265 and told him to carry out 125 hours of unpaid work, as part of a community payback order.
Refugee warning
An asylum seeker was warned by a sheriff he could put his status in jeopardy after being turfed out of his Perth hotel accommodation in a drunken clash with staff and police. Mohamed Eljemni flew into a rage at the Station Hotel days after he was put there as part of a Home Office scheme to re-house refugees fleeing conflict and war.
Sick accused
A Dundonian caught peddling child abuse files has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register but will face no further punishment as he is “incapacitated” through dementia.
Philip Lynch was found to have made, possessed and distributed the filth in 2021 at his home in Balunie Street.
He took or made indecent photographs of children between January 21 and September 14, possessed the images until September 15 and distributed them between February 2 and September 14.
Lynch was not convicted of the offences but following an examination of facts, Sheriff Paul Brown found, on the balance of probabilities, there were no grounds for acquitting him.
Such a hearing takes place after a court has deemed an accused is unfit to stand trial.
Ill 61-year-old Lynch did not attend the hearing at Forfar Sheriff Court.
His lawyer explained his client no longer has any access to devices which are connected to the internet and said he is looked after “virtually around the clock.”
Sheriff Brown made no order other than placing Lynch on the Sex Offenders Register for the next five years.
On-the-run rapist jailed
A man who went on the run while facing rape charges left the woman he sexually assaulted in Perthshire with lasting “mental scars”. Nathan Perry-Harper, 29, was given a seven-year jail term for his heinous crimes.
Machete in car
A dangerous driver will be sentenced after he and his passenger were convicted of having a machete in his car.
Reece Cuthbert and Kevin O’Donnell were found guilty by the majority of jurors at Forfar Sheriff Court of possessing the weapon.
Both Dundee men were cleared of a second charge of possessing a knife..
Cuthbert – who once landed in the dock for harassing ex-Tory MP Ross Thomson – had already admitted a string of driving offences before the trial.
He pled guilty to driving dangerously on March 17 2020 on the A90 at Dundee’s Forfar Road by failing to stop for a red light and driving at excessive speed.
He overtook on the nearside and failed to maintain proper control of his car, collided with a kerb and drove on a footpath, before failing to stop for police.
Driving with cannabis in his system, he forced other road users had to take evasive action.
He pled guilty to another course of dangerous driving on July 15 2021 on North Marketgait, Dock Street and Gotterstone Avenue, failing to stop for police and driving towards a marked police vehicle, damaging both cars.
He then reversed and mounted a pavement.
On this occasion, he and backseat passenger O’Donnell had the machete in the vehicle and Cuthbert was driving with no insurance and fraudulent registration plates.
Cuthbert, 28, of Balbeggie Street, has a 2020 conviction for resisting arrest and O’Donnell, 30, of Lawton Terrace, has two convictions for weapons offences.
Sheriff Krista Johnston released both on bail and deferred sentencing to June 29 for reports.
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