A drug mule has been fined after police caught him with cocaine worth between £750 and £1,400 while driving without insurance.
Nathan Blyth, 28, was caught on Montrose Road and Linton Road in Arbroath on February 24 this year.
Officers seized 14.7g of Class A drug cocaine, as well as an iPhone and £590 in cash.
Blyth, of Thistle Street in Carnoustie, admitted the traffic offence and being concerned in the supply of the drugs.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard he was offered £300 to move the cocaine.
He was fined £600 plus a £40 victim surcharge and had six penalty points imposed on his driving licence.
The sheriff also granted forfeiture of the seized cash and phone.
Horse attacked
An XL Bully, which escaped its Kirriemuir home and attacked a horse, causing its “traumatised” 12-year-old rider to fall and break her coccyx, has been destroyed. Aaron Eggie’s pet carried out the attack four months after two of his other dogs – pocket bullies – escaped his garden on Boxing Day and attacked a golden Labrador.
Too much ammo
A gamekeeper at a Perthshire estate has been fined after he was caught with more than his permitted amount of gun ammunition.
John Spence‘s firearms certificate allows him to have up to 500 rounds of .22 ammo, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
But when police visited the 58-year-old on an unrelated matter on September 23 2022 at a cottage in Fowlis Wester, near Crieff, they found 789 rounds in a secured black box.
When charged, Spence said: “I’ve been busy. I must have miscounted.”
Solicitor Linda Clark, defending, said her client was employed as a gamekeeper and regularly organised pheasant shoots on the estate and had made a “genuine error”.
The court heard that Spence, of Lairg, Sutherland, has retained his certificate and recently took up a contract for a deer cull.
He was fined £750.
Compo for grope
A property developer who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in a Dunfermline Wetherspoons on new year’s day has been told to pay the teenager £2,000. Giedrius Ambrazevicius, 40, from Lithuania, was previously found guilty by a jury of groping his victim near the main entrance door of the city’s High Street premises in the early hours of January 1 2022.
Campaign of abuse
Domestic abuser Barry Duggan will be sentenced next month after admitting a catalogue of abuse lasting almost three years.
At Forfar Sheriff Court, the 24-year-old pled guilty to the terrifying campaign in St Cyrus, Montrose and Gourdon in Aberdeenshire, between September 2020 and May 2023.
He acted in a controlling manner towards his partner, accused her of being unfaithful, seized her mobile phone and searched through it before deleting content.
Duggan, of Ecclescraig Road in St Cyrus, also used the phone to message others while pretending to be his partner.
He repeatedly called and texted her, made abusive remarks and violent threats and pulled her hair.
Duggan called the woman derogatory names while she was pregnant, punched her on the head and threatened her with violence.
He admitted attending at her home address, uninvited, during the night and also seizing her by the clothing, dragging her and punching her in the head and body and spitting on her, threatening to kill her, seizing and twisting her arm.
During the same incident, Duggan gesticulated with his fist, threw household items and attempted to take the woman’s dog.
Duggan was on bail throughout his campaign and admitted breaching orders not to have contact with the woman in September 2022 and May 2023.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown continued his bail while reports are prepared ahead of sentencing on June 13.
Killer’s appeal fails
A killer who murdered a young Stirling mother in a brutal attack described as “beyond sadistic” has lost an appeal to cut his minimum jail term. Christopher McGowan, 28, savagely assaulted and murdered girlfriend Claire Inglis at her home in the St Ninians area of Stirling in November 2021.
Head injury acquittal
A 65-year-old man has been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman in a Broughty Ferry pub after it was deemed he was suffering from a head injury at the time of the incident.
James Duguid had been accused of carrying out the attack at Jolly’s Hotel on May 1 2022.
It was alleged he repeatedly handled the woman’s hands, wrists, chest and thighs before placing his arms around her and pulling her towards him.
Duguid, of Boyd Orr Avenue in Aberdeen, denied the allegation at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Solicitors acting for Duguid instructed a report arguing a defence under section 51A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
It was argued he was suffering from the impact of a head injury at the time of the incident and was not criminally responsible for his conduct as a result.
The Crown Office instructed its own report into Duguid and both parties agreed that the defence applied so Duguid was formally acquitted by Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon.
Killer’s wait for sentencing
The killer of a Stirling care worker must wait to see where she will be held in the long term. Kellyanne McNaughton, 33, killed Michele Rutherford on March 7 2023 after failed attempts to get psychiatric help. A suitable place for her ongoing incarceration has not yet been found, a sentencing hearing was told.
Reports ordered
Reports have been ordered for a man who carried out a violent attack on Hogmanay.
David Valentine is remanded in custody ahead of sentencing after he admitted assaulting a man at The West House on December 31 last year.
The 27-year-old pled guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court to headbutting the man, knocking him to the ground before punching and kicking him to the head and body to his injury.
He was subject to two separate bail orders from the same court as well as being released on bail from Perth Sheriff Court.
Valentine, of Bayview Road in Invergowrie, appeared in court via video link from HMP Perth.
Sentence was deferred until later this month by Sheriff Clair McLachlan for a social work report to be obtained.
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