An Angus man bombarded a Job Centre employee with death threats when he was told he would have to attend an appointment in person.
Daniel Lendrum, now employed as a roofer, admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner towards the centre worker over a client messaging system.
Lendrum, 23, of Robert Burns Drive in Hillside, pled guilty to making offensive remarks and threats to the worker upon being told he would need to travel to the Wellgate centre.
Over the messaging system, he told the worker: “If I have to go to Dundee, you will regret it when I attack you, you c***.
“A poxy screen isn’t going to stop me you f***ing idiot. I’ll have the place up in flames, stupid c***s.
“You’re putting your employees’ lives at risk. I will kill someone if you try and make me go there. That’s a promise.”
Sheriff Reekie noted the offender was “quite happy” to travel between Montrose and Edinburgh to see family but his solicitor Kyra Strachan said: “At the time, Mr Lendrum was struggling quite badly with his mental health.”
Sheriff Reekie fined Lendrum £640 altogether and told him: “Your behaviour was appalling. The messages you sent are utterly despicable.”
Teacher jailed
A Fife teacher who stroked a pupil’s arm and asked her to form a relationship with him in an “egregious” abuse of trust has been jailed. Lee Dempsey, 45, was a teacher at a high school in Glenrothes when he made sexual contact with the girl and took her back to his home.
‘Limited memory’ of assault
A violent abuser who repeatedly kicked his wife in the face after a drunken night out in Broughty Ferry must perform unpaid work.
Derek Martin left the woman bloodied and bruised after the serious assault on Brook Street on November 23 last year.
The 45-year-old previously pled guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court to repeatedly kicking the woman on the head to her injury.
Solicitor Angie Clay said Martin had been heavily under the influence of alcohol and has “limited memory” of the attack.
She said: “He does not have any explanation of why this has happened.
“He was at his boss’s birthday party. He had been drinking over the course of the evening.
“He continued to drink and they appeared to argue and then the assault (has occurred) thereafter.”
Ms Clay said the incident “ended very quickly” and the couple “went their separate ways”.
The court heard Martin, of Shaw Place in Monifieth, had limited his alcohol intake since and was participating in Dry January.
He was given 120 hours unpaid work as a direct alternative to a custodial sentence.
Abuser faces sentencing
A controlling domestic abuser who subjected his former partner to violent abuse is facing a prison sentence. James Burns was convicted by a jury at the High Court of Dundee of carrying out attacks on the woman at addresses in the city.
Shopping centre breaches
Steven Boyd, 41, from Dunfermline is on the sex offenders register ahead of sentencing next month.
Boyd appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to plead guilty to sexual assault and two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm.
Prosecutor Annie Henderson told the court Boyd regularly went to the Kingsgate shopping centre in Dunfermline and is known to staff there.
On June 30 last year, he approached a woman working in a shop and began to “follow her around the store”, complimenting her, “blowing kisses across the store” and staring at her.
A 19-year-old working alone in another store at 10am on August 23 last year was approached by Boyd, who “took hold of her hand, moved it to his mouth and began kissing it,” the fiscal said.
She had previously met Boyd when he came in and asked to shake her hand, which she had allowed.
Due to Boyd’s size, she did not challenge him but recorded him leaving the store and it was reported to security.
On October 22 last year got on a bus on Halbeath Road and, despite there being empty seats, sat next to a 19-year-old girl and asked her questions similar to “are you single?” and “would your boyfriend be jealous?” and “can we be friends?”.
They both disembarked at Dunfermline bus station and she next saw Boyd in the High Street store so informed her manager of the bus incident and Boyd was asked to leave the.
The court heard that Boyd is currently subject to bail conditions not to enter the Kingsgate or the high street and is not presently allowed unaccompanied onto any public transport.
Attacked barber with scissors
Mehmet Celik, from Inverness, admitted a vicious scissor stabbing at a Turkish barbers in Perth. He assaulted a stylist at the High Street salon on October 1 2023.
More time in prison
Former murder accused Angela Newlands has had her prison release date knocked back further.
Newlands, 34, had been expecting to be released from custody on July 11 after being sentenced in December to 28 months imprisonment for a string of dishonest offences.
These included lying about having a child, stealing bank cards and pinching eight cockapoo puppies.
The HMP Stirling inmate appeared by video link at Forfar Sheriff Court to be re-sentenced in relation to a community order she could no longer complete due to being behind bars.
Sheriff Derek Reekie admonished her in connection with two shoplifting incidents she admitted at Asda in Forfar on September 2022.
However, he imposed a two-month consecutive sentence after Newlands admitted she acted in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and making racist remarks at a shopkeeper in the Best One store on Taranty Road, Forfar, on the same day.
The sheriff told her: “I’ve no alternative other than to impose a custodial sentence.”
120mph chase
A driver performed handbrake turns and hit speeds of up to 120mph during a police chase in Fife. Kaine Baxter, 27, was eventually stopped in Kinross – about six miles from where the pursuit began in Kelty – after driving into a garden, where his vehicle was pinned against a tree.
Prison slasher
A Perth prisoner who slashed another inmate with a mystery weapon has been jailed for 28 months.
Ryan Grace, who has a history of violent crime, admitted the September 18 2022 attack on Tyler Andrew when he appeared at the city’s sheriff court.
Fiscal depute Laurelle Johnstone said the assault happened in Grace’s cell.
A prison officer went to investigate a disturbance and saw Andrew clutching his face.
When he asked what had happened, he replied: “It was that weegie b*****d in number 19.”
Andrew was treated for a four-inch cut near his left eye and Grace’s cell was searched but no weapon was recovered.
The court heard Grace had since moved to Barlinnie and has taken steps to rehabilitate himself and “make better choices.”
Sheriff Jennifer Bain told Grace: “You have a record that includes violent offending and I hope you can treat this as a wake up call.
“There is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”
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