A Perth woman temporarily blinded a police officer with weed killer.
Levi Dixon sprayed the chemical in the PC’s eyes during a disturbance in the city’s Strathtay Road on October 8 2020.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the 33-year-old, who has trouble dealing with authority figures as part of an “oppositional defiant disorder,” had refused to comply with a gas safety check at her home.
She phoned emergency services while council officers waited on her doorstep.
Fiscal depute Sarah Wilkinson said: “The council property inspector unlocked the door using a master key.
“The accused was behind the door, pushing against it.
“Officers managed to push the door open slightly and the accused sprayed weed killer at the officer.”
Ms Wilkinson said the officer struck in the eye was initially blinded but her sight recovered.
Dixon admitted assault and Sheriff Jennifer Bain imposed a 15-week 9pm to 7am curfew and said: “This was a horrible attack on a serving police officer by spreading weedkiller in her eyes.
“You are lucky it did not cause permanent injury or even loss of sight.”
Sick of flights
A man sent bomb threats to Edinburgh Airport’s Twitter account because he was “sick” of planes flying over his house early in the morning. William Russell, 31, suggested the planes should change their flight path or he would burn down the airport building and “every f***ing human in the place” and threatened to kidnap a manager’s children.
Gym stalker
A man who stalked a woman, including at a Fife Pure Gym, for more than six months has been given unpaid work.
Edmund Neidlinger, 45, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing after previously admitting engaging in a course of conduct which caused the woman fear or alarm, between March 1 and September 14 last year.
Neidlinger continually stared at her, repeatedly messaged her on social media, created new social media accounts to contact her and posted messages about her on his social media accounts.
He continued to contact her knowing she had blocked him and repeatedly contacted her on her business social media accounts.
Neidlinger was originally also charged with repeatedly attending at her place of work when he knew she would be there and monitoring her movements at her work but these elements were deleted from the charge.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said Neidlinger, of Abbey Street, High Valleyfield, is on a waiting list to see a psychologist.
Sheriff Susan Duff sentenced Neidlinger to 100 hours of unpaid work and offender supervision for a year, with a conduct requirement.
Sheriff Duff also banned him from contacting his victim for two years.
Flasher
A serial flasher exposed himself to three women on a remote Perthshire woodland trail. Ionel Sara-Lates was found hiding in a bush with his trousers at his ankles at a popular dog walking route near Luncarty.
Flipped car in crash
A driver’s car was “catapulted” into the air after striking a parked vehicle in Perth.
Calum Clark’s Ford Fiesta tumbled several times before coming to a halt on its roof in Rannoch Road on September 29 2022.
The landscape gardener asked a stunned onlooker for a cigarette after managing to scramble out of the upturned car but he was nowhere to be seen when police arrived, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
Clark, 24, of Rona Court, Perth, was banned after admitting careless driving and failing to report the accident within 24 hours.
Fiscal depute Duncan McKenzie said: “Mr Clark’s vehicle was catapulted into the air.
“It rotated a number of times, before turning onto its roof.
”The vehicle slid onto the opposing carriageway and came to rest, partly on a footpath.”
The prosecutor said: “Mr Clark was able to extract himself from the vehicle.
“Once outside, he asked a bystander for a cigarette.”
Clark was later traced by officers at Ninewells Hospital, confirmed he had been driving and said he knew the owner of the other car – a Volkswagen Polo worth £2000 – and had spoken to her.
Mr McKenzie said both vehicles were written off.
He added: “Mr Clark was the only person injured, he suffered a laceration to his right hip.”
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said his client had to undergo a CT scan at hospital.
Sheriff Paul Brown fined Clark £440 and imposed five penalty points, resulting in a six-month ban due to totting-up procedures.
Police launched an appeal for witnesses following the collision.
Dirty doctor
A former university doctor has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two young male students in his campus surgery. David Allan Buchan molested the 20-year-old undergraduates between 1995 and 1998 under the pretence of genuine treatment after they attended his clinic with run-of-the-mill medical complaints.
Sex act claim
A man made a sick claim to a woman that he performed a sex act on a chair she was sitting on because she and her boyfriend had been “keeping him awake”.
Pavel Wojtowicz, 28, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to communicating indecently by making sexually inappropriate comments towards the woman at a property in Fife on May 9 last year.
Prosecutor Brogan Moffat told the court Wojtowicz had asked the woman for a chat and gestured for her to sit on a chair.
Ms Moffat said Wojtowicz told her he had not been sleeping since her boyfriend had been staying with her.
He then pointed to the chair she was sitting on and said he had masturbated on it.
The fiscal depute said: “He thereafter stated she had made him feel disgusting, so wanted to make her feel disgusting.
“The woman felt scared and in shock and removed herself from the property”.
The court heard Wojtowicz later told her he did not do anything on the chair and that it was “just so you knew how I felt”.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said: “It was a comment made as he was very upset at having been kept awake for a significant part of the weekend.
“It’s something he regrets.”
Sheriff Susan Duff sentenced Wojtowicz to offender supervision for six months with additional requirements.
Wojtowicz, of Woodside Street, Rosyth, has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for six months from February 27.
Murder petition
Barry Murray, 43, of Ann Street, Dundee, appeared in private on a petition alleging the murder of Steven Alexander Hutton in Dundee.
It is alleged he was struck with a hammer before being stabbed with a knife in a flat on Charleston Road on Saturday March 30.
Murray appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court on a single charge alleging he – with others whose identities have not been disclosed – forced entry to 43-year-old Mr Hutton’s flat before murdering him.
Murray made no plea and was committed for further examination. He was remanded in custody.
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