An Arbroath man has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after admitting grabbing a woman’s breasts.
Robert Beattie, 43, appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to plead guilty to sexually assaulting the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Beattie, of Norah Avenue in Arbroath, grabbed both of the woman’s breasts without her consent at a property elsewhere in the town on May 12 last year.
Sheriff David Hall placed him on the Register and deferred sentencing until June 20 for background reports.
Life-threatening injuries
A Dundee driver who left a carer with life-threatening injuries and requiring carers of her own has been banned from driving. Melissa White, 36, struck Tessa Towell, then aged 57, as she was preparing to drive off from a work client’s Kirkton home.
Pervert chef
A chef who groomed two underage girls before being caught with indecent images has been ordered to perform unpaid work.
Ross Gibson engaged in sexual activity with children before breaching a court order preventing him from contacting one of them.
Quick-thinking residents in Glenrothes became suspicious of Gibson’s behaviour after he was spotted picking up a girl in his car.
The 31-year-old pled guilty to sexual offences at addressed in Dundee and Fife over a two-year period.
Police would later raid Gibson’s home on Balfour Gardens in Glenrothes and find 25 indecent images of children, some of which were at the highest-level of depravity.
He previously pled guilty to meeting a girl with the intention of engaging in sexual activity and engaging in sexual activity on November 7 and November 29 2021 on Watson Street, Dundee.
Gibson downloaded indecent images of children between May 1 2018 and April 14 2023.
He engaged in sexual activity with a second child between December 1 and 31 2022 and also admitted possessing cannabis on June 7 2023.
Gibson would later meet and communicate with the girl on May 15 and May 29 2023, in breach of bail conditions imposed on May 4 that year.
Solicitor advocate Simon Whyte, defending, said: “The (social work) report is perhaps refreshing as there’s a frankness to his explanation of his offending behaviour which is perhaps not common in offences of this type.
“That could give the court some optimism if a stringent community payback order was imposed then him being placed on the Moving Forward Making Changes programme is going to have a more significant impact on the risk of reoffending than a backdated sentence.”
Gibson had been on remand for almost a year at HMP Edinburgh prior to being sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Paul Brown placed him on supervision for three years with a requirement to engage with Moving Forward Making Changes.
Gibson must perform 180 hours of unpaid work and is subject to a number of conditions preventing him from contacting children under-16 while unsupervised as well as his internet and device access.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for three years
Hammer attack
A man has admitted smashing his way into Dunfermline Sheriff Court with a mallet. Boguslaw Lach, 35, broke windows and door glass panels at the court during his rampage on Wednesday afternoon.
Bad break-up
A Cardenden man who grabbed his long-term partner by the throat has been given a five-month curfew order and banned from contacting her for a year.
Scott Brennan, 41, of Kirkburn Drive, previously pled guilty to the domestic assault at an address in Wallsgreen Gardens on November 25 last year.
Prosecutor Catherine Stevenson said the woman had returned from a night out to a house in Main Street and witnessed Brennan in a vehicle waiting nearby.
He asked what was going on and she told him “nothing” before he drove off.
The woman returned home, where she had some friends round and Brennan turned up, banged on the door, barged in when she opened it and they argued.
The fiscal depute said: “The accused has then grabbed the complainer by the throat and pushed her to the sofa”.
Defence lawyer Pete Robertson said Brennan was remorseful and was upset following the breakup of their relationship and that she had another partner.
Failed to stop
A Fife driver who caused a serious two-car crash in rural Perthshire, leaving three people injured, has been banned from the road. Jack Thomson drove through a junction and straight into the side of a passing Kia Sportage. The car rolled onto its side and landed on its roof in a field.
Cocaine driver
A cocaine-driver anonymously reported to police was caught four times over the drug-drive limit between Dundee and Arbroath.
Brian Robertson, 38, of Baldovan Terrace in Dundee admitted driving four times over the limit (200mics/ 50) of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine when police stopped him on the A92 near Muirdrum on February 24 last year.
Solicitor Grant Bruce said: “Mr Robertson was going through a bad spell at the time.
“He’d just lost his job, he did appear to be having some mental health issues.”
Sheriff Derek Reekie fined the landscape gardener £400, plus a £20 victim surcharge, and disqualified him for a year.
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