A bareknuckle boxer and YouTube personality who narrowly avoided striking two road workers during a wild Tayside police chase has been spared a prison sentence.
Derek “Decca” Heggie was found guilty of leading officers on the dangerous pursuit from Dundee in a BMW on March 15 2021.
The car was lost to sight and Heggie was only traced after being identified by one of the police officers who was a fan of his online content.
The former fighter claimed he had been recording a podcast on the night in question and was not the driver.
But Heggie was convicted at Dundee Sheriff Court of driving dangerously, including narrowly missing two roads workers, on various roads in Dundee and the A92 near Muirdrum.
The 40-year-old, of Carlisle, was hauled into custody after being deported from the Philippines in December.
He was released on bail in May and sentencing was previously delayed due to issues obtaining social work reports.
Finally sentencing him, Sheriff Garry Sutherland said: “The driving was appalling.
“It was very, very dangerous. Were it not for the fact you served a period on remand, you would have been facing custody.”
Heggie was disqualified from driving for five years and placed on a restriction of liberty order, designed to keep him indoors between 7pm and 7am for five months.
He will also be supervised by the social work department in Cumbria for 12 months.
Creep spared jail
A Fife creep who sexually abused and secretly filmed a young girl has been spared jail. Matthew Finlayson, 33, was found guilty after trial of sexually assaulting the child on various occasions at an address in Kirkcaldy during a period spanning more than two years.
Fled from occupied house
An intruder crept into a Perth woman’s home but fled when he discovered the house was still occupied.
Thomas Devers appeared from custody at the city’s sheriff court and admitted being inside the Rora Court property on Wednesday.
The charge states it is reasonable to infer the 40-year-old had been there to commit theft.
Devers, of Sauchie Place, Crieff, further pled guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in Dundee’s Lochee Road later that day.
Sheriff Mark Lindsay KC deferred sentence for background reports.
Serial offender Devers was released on bail.
Bizarre breach
A man who draped himself in a Nazi flag then chased a man through Stirling while wielding an “active” chainsaw will be examined by a psychologist before he is sentenced. Cameron Hotchkiss, 22, previously admitted breaching the peace on June 24 last year.
Self-medication
A Dundee teen was caught driving while eight-and-a-half times over the drug-drive limit on the A92 when police smelled cannabis from his Vauxhall Corsa.
Officers pulled over Charlie Johnston, 19, on February 28 this year at 6pm at Salmondsmuir and provided an excess reading of Delta-9-THC (17mics/ 2).
Police reported Johnston’s eyes to be reddened and glazed, with pupils dilated.
Solicitor Billy Rennie told Forfar Sheriff Court his Dundee University business student client, who admitted drug-driving, had been self-medicating for ADHD and has not touched cannabis since being stopped.
Sheriff Derek Reekie imposed a 14-month driving ban and fined Johnston, of Kirnie Gardens in Dundee, £500, plus a £20 victim surcharge.
The sheriff said: “Hopefully this now made you realise that self-medicating for issues is not the answer.”
Trial retrospective
After former care worker Kerri Hutcheson was cleared by a jury of murdering her partner Graeme Hutcheson in Dundee, The Courier looked back at the high court trial and picked out the key points.
Machete madness
A machete-swinging Fife man who was only brought down by police after four Taser shots and pepper spray, has been handed a community sentence.
PC Harry Black managed to dodge Joroslaw Szmajda‘s machete attack in Methil on Hogmanay 2022 but it took multiple Taser shots to bring down the raging attacker.
Officers had been called to the Beech Avenue house by the 42-year-old labourer’s terrified partner after Szmajda, who had been drinking, began cutting his own face with a knife.
Prosecutor Christine Allan told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court previously Szmajda was found in the house holding two large knives by his side, one of which looked like a machete.
An officer instructed Szmajda to drop the weapons but he merely walked towards the constable with the knives.
The first Taser strike hit Szmajda on the jacket to no effect and he kicked the officer.
A second Taser shot had no effect, prompting Szmajda to “roar out” at the officer and “attempt to strike him with the machete,” the fiscal said.
The swipe missed and the PC backed away, called for help and fired the Taser a third time to no effect, before a fourth shot struck Szmajda’s leg.
Another officer used pepper spray to bring him under control.
Szmajda, of Pitcorthie Drive, Dunfermline, pled guilty to assault and a breach of bail and reappeared for sentencing.
Sheriff James Williamson gave him a two-year community payback order with offender supervision and a further requirement for him to take support for his alcohol misuse.
The sheriff said there will be a review on October 8 to see his progression and that he intends to impose unpaid work.
Sheriff Williamson banned him from contacting his then partner for a year.
Szmajda was also banned from driving for four years and fined £300 after previously admitting drink driving while more than five times the legal limit (116mics/22) on December 10 last year – his second drink-driving offence.
‘Hard’ man
A man has been given a prison warning after he admitted he attacked a young child in Fife after asking if he thought he was “hard” during a three-year campaign of domestic abuse and assaults. Stuart McLaren attacked the boy on various occasions when he was aged between two and five.
Not so Tough
An Angus man has been locked up after admitting a domestic assault on a pregnant woman.
James Tough, 35, of East Den Brae in Letham, appeared from custody at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit, on April 8 this year, striking the woman on the head with his hand.
The court heard Tough has previous convictions for violence, stalking and domestic abuse but has not offended since 2021.
Sheriff David Hall remanded Tough and ordered reports ahead of sentencing on July 23.
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