A domestic thug who snatched his partner’s phone and claimed to delete photos of her deceased daughter has been freed from custody.
Remanded Graeme Dickson was brought from HMP Perth to Dundee Sheriff Court to be sentenced for a campaign of abuse towards his ex.
Between April and May in 2020, Dickson tormented the woman at a flat in Dundee’s Ancrum Court and elsewhere.
He shouted, swore and threatened her with violence as well as refusing to let her leave the flat.
During this time, Dickson also pushed the woman, causing her to strike her head against a wall to her injury.
Dickson also took the woman’s phone and refused to give it back, and while he had it, he claimed to delete photos of the woman’s late daughter.
Solictor John Boyle said: “There is clearly a pattern of domestic offending.
“Mr Dickson recognises that. Perhaps for the first time, he recognises he needs assistance with that.
“He’s spent considerable time thinking about his difficulties.
“He’s well aware that custody is a very real prospect.
“The time spent in custody has been of benefit to Mr Dickson.
“He appears to me, and the social workers, motivated to address these difficulties.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and undertake the Caledonian Men’s Programme.
Dickson will be supervised for a year and a non-harassment order will protect his victim for two years.
The sheriff fixed a review, when Dickson will be sentenced for another matter, on September 5.
Sheriff Carmichael said: “You have spent a long time in custody.
“This sentence will be a direct alternative to custody.”
Motorhome scam
A pensioner who conned elderly caravanners out of nearly £350,000 to prop up her failing business has been jailed for 12 months.
Fife motorhome dealer Christine Galloway left numerous victims thousands of pounds out of pocket by selling on their vans and keeping the cash.
Galloway, 68, spent two years acting as a broker to dupe motorhome owners into handing over their vehicles for her to sell on.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael told her: “You pled guilty to a serious offence in which you obtained almost £350,000 by fraud over a 21-month period.
”Several victims of the fraud were elderly people who had put their trust in you to act honestly. Your business at one time was well-run and respected.
“This consisted of multiple individual frauds over 21 months and your actions were deliberate, calculated and organised.”
Cocaine courier
A disqualified motorist who took a job as a delivery driver in Perthshire and was caught with cocaine in his system has been jailed.
Thomson Johnston was already banned from the road when he found work as a courier in 2020.
His van was pulled over by police on Main Street, Abernethy, on July 9.
The 40-year-old, from Northampton, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted driving while disqualified and with no insurance.
He also had 147 mics of Benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – in his system. The permitted drug-driving amount is 50 mics.
His lawyer Linda Clark told the court: “This was poor decision making on his behalf.
“Since this offence, he has not come back to the attention of any court for any road traffic offending.”
She added: “While he straddles the custody threshold – and there’s no bones about that – reports prepared on his behalf are positive.”
Sheriff David Hall told Johnston: “The position here is that, knowing full well you were disqualified, you took up employment as a delivery driver.
“You compounded that by being three times the legal amount of cocaine in your system.
“There is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”
Johnston was jailed for six months and banned from driving for four years.
Taser trouble
A man who went out in Dundee armed with a taser has been jailed.
Lewis Conroy was spotted carrying the firearm by nightclub door staff.
They alerted police after they heard the device twice being activated.
Conroy, 25, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitting having the weapon in the city’s Ward Road in the early hours of June 2, last year.
Fiscal depute Gavin Letford said doormen on duty outside a Rattray Street nightspot reported the matter to police using a radio link at about 12.30am.
Conroy was later spotted by another doorman who had overheard his description.
Mr Letford said “multiple” police units were scrambled to the scene.
Conroy was traced and searched, but he had nothing on him.
At about 1.40am, police found the gun on Johnston Street. CCTV was reviewed and showed Conroy carrying the item before getting rid of it.
Conroy, listed as a prisoner in Perth, further pled guilty to a second charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in Bobby Jones Place, St Andrews, on October 30.
The court heard he banged on doors, shouted at a resident and was later seen carrying a knife.
A lawyer for Conroy told the court her client suffered PTSD after he was the victim of a stabbing.
Sheriff David Hall told Conroy: “To my mind, there is no alternative to custody.
“This a serious offence and you have a record for assault and attempted robbery.”
Conroy was jailed for 28 months.
No jail for pervert duped by decoy
A Rosyth man who sent a picture of his private parts and a video of himself carrying out a sex act to someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl has narrowly avoided a prison sentence.
James Waite, 27, asked the ‘child’ – who was actually an adult decoy – if she “liked his w***y” and in other sexual messages asked her for sex and requested she send him naked images of herself.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard previously that more than 500 pages of messages between Waite and the decoy were later passed to police.
At an earlier hearing, Waite pled guilty to attempting to cause a person he believed to be a 12-year-old girl to look at a sexual image by sending pictures of his genitals and a video of himself carrying out a sex act.
He also admitted attempting to communicate indecently with a young child.
The offending took place between February 14 and April 10 last year.
Waite, of Dundonald Road, Rosyth, appeared in the dock for sentencing on Friday.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said his client appears “genuinely remorseful” for what happened, accepts he has done wrong, and that it seems unlikely Waite will appear in court again in future.
Mr Flett said Waite has a learning disability, detailed in a psychological report, and had been employment but was suspended for a month in light of the court proceedings.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told Waite the fact that this was not a real girl made “very little difference” to his offending, though pointed out the harm caused is not the same as if it had been.
The sheriff said: “This was carried out over a significant time and the only thing that keeps you out of prison today is your psychological condition.
“I am just prepared to deal with this by way of a non-custodial sentence”.
Sheriff Macnair ordered Waite to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work placed him on offender supervision for three years.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Sheriff Macnair added: “Had you not pled guilty you would have been going to custody”.
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