The guilty verdict against John Goldie marked the conclusion of a complex and time-consuming case.
The run-up to his trial was marked by an increasingly bizarre set of twists.
Perhaps the most striking came just days before the case was originally due to be heard, when the businessman told his defence team he frequented the same country club as the sheriff due to hear the trial.
Sheriff Charles Macnair ruled he had “no option” but to pull out of the case as a result.
The revelation came during an apparently routine procedural hearing, four days before the trial was due to begin at Cupar Sheriff Court.
Goldie’s defence agent told the court both her client and the sitting sheriff had previously been members of the Keavil House Hotel Country Club. The accused said their paths had “often” crossed there.
Despite saying he had “no memory” of seeing Goldie at the club, the sheriff said his wife had “socialised” with the businessman in the past.
Problems with finding a replacement sheriff led to the case being delayed for several weeks. When it did call again Goldie’s defence team revealed he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and might be “incapable” of participating.
Having received emergency radiotherapy, consultants insisted he should start the next course of his treatment involving potentially debilitating chemotherapy immediately.
Further information regarding Goldie’s fitness to stand trial was requested, meaning yet another procedural hearing was required.
Once again, finding an available sheriff proved difficult and Sheriff Mungo Bovey became the third to hear the facts of the case.
At that stage, Goldie himself insisted he wanted to “put the matter behind” him so that he could concentrate on his treatment. As a result the trial was at last ready to progress and began on Monday of last week.