A 32-year-old man has appeared in court following an armed police response incident in Ballingry.
Krai-Harry Sweeney pled guilty to two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, when he appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
He admitted shouting and swearing, uttering offensive and derogatory comments, repeatedly smashing a shovel against a gate, uttering threats to harm police officers, holding a knife to his throat and threatening to self harm.
The incident took place on July 10 and 11 at his home in Kildownie Crescent.
Sweeney pled guilty to a second charge of threatening violence to police officers and their families, attempting to strike his head within a police vehicle and attempting to spit at police officers.
This happened on July 11 at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital and while he was being taken to Dunfermline police station.
Defence lawyer Aime Allan told the court her client had been having difficulty with mental health issues.
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon deferred sentence until August 9 for background reports.
Sweeney was released on bail.
‘Human traffic’ trial
Two men accused of exploiting foreign workers in rural Perthshire and threatening them and their families if they go to the police will stand trial next year.
Stelian Neacsu and Petrica Obreja deny being gangmasters to around 10 people at locations across Blairgowrie.
The pair have been charged under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act.
Neacsu, 56, of Worriston Street, Glasgow, and Obreja, 39, of High Street, Perth, have both pled not guilty.
They were not present when their case called for a pre-trial hearing at Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
A trial date was set for April 22, next year. Fiscal depute Joanne Ritchie said it could last as long as 14 days.
Abusive DJ jailed
A violent and controlling boyfriend who claimed he was “trying to do his best for his partner” has been jailed for 20 months.
Techno DJ Steven Rose throttled his girlfriend and swung a baseball bat at her during a campaign of domestic cruelty that spanned more than a year.
Perth Sheriff Court heard he plagued her with phone calls, monitored her social media accounts and threatened to end their relationship if she went out with friends.
Rose, 44, returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday having previously admitted engaging in an abusive course of behaviour against his now ex at their home in Auchterarder, and elsewhere, between May 1 2019 and July 31 2020.
The court heard he believed he was trying to rescue his girlfriend from her pals.
Sheriff David Hall said: “This is almost classic self-denial, isn’t it?”
Raid on JD Sports
A 21-year-old Fife man stole nearly £400 worth of clothing from JD Sports.
Colin Ross previously pled guilty to the theft from the shop in Dunfermline’s Kingsgate centre on April 10 this year.
He appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing.
Fiscal depute Amy Robertson told the court the value of the items taken was £380.
Ross’s defence lawyer said the reason he stole the clothes was because he was trying to move to Renfrewshire at the time and had no clothes or money.
The solicitor said Ross, formerly of Peebles Street in Kirkcaldy, is now living in Bridge of Weir with his grandmother and had previously been mixing with people who were a bad influence.
He now has employment through a family business related to tarring roads.
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon fined Ross £300 and ordered him to pay £380 in compensation to JD Sports at the Kingsgate.
Tot injured playing ‘Airplanes’
A man who left an Angus tot with fractured bones has been handed the maximum community sentence available.
Richard Kennedy previously admitted culpably and recklessly leaving the 14-week-old baby with severe injuries after playing “airplanes” in January 2021.
At that hearing, he also pled guilty to a campaign of domestic abuse.
Returning to the dock at Forfar Sheriff Court for sentencing, he was ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work in a year.
Kennedy was also placed under supervision for three years, during which time he must complete a project aimed at rehabilitating domestic offenders.
A non-harassment order will protect his former partner for seven years.
During that period, he will also be banned from entering Kirriemuir.
Not dealing, stealing
A Dundee man who told a court he was not concerned in the supply of heroin but had instead stolen it from a car has been cleared.
Jamie Lee Ottoway, 41, had faced two charges of supplying illicit substances from a property on Balgayview Gardens, between November 30 2020 and December 3 2020.
He had denied dealing heroin and class C drug etizolam.
During the course of the trial, Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Mr Ottoway had not been concerned in the supply of drugs for sale, but had stolen them from a car.
Mr Ottoway had not been charged with that alleged offence.
The jury, of 12 men and three women, took less than an hour to clear the Stirling Street-man of both charges.
He was found not proven, by majority, and allowed to leave the court.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
