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An Angus boyfriend left his partner covered in blood when he drunkenly struck her on the face in the back of a taxi on Christmas Day.
Connor Curran, from Letham, appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit injuring his partner in the domestic assault on December 25, 2024.
Prosecutor Jill Drummond explained Curran, his partner and his sister got in a taxi to his rural cottage just before 9pm after spending Christmas boozing at his mum’s house.
“Whilst approaching the outskirts of Letham, the car jolted in the back seats and the driver felt the car rock.
“Due to this, the taxi driver slowed the car down and turned on the internal light to see what was going on.
“The driver has observed the complainer in the middle seat to be covered in blood and blood coming from her nose.
“She stated: ‘He struck me to the face’.”
Solicitor Sarah Russo said: “Mr Curran full accepts what happened in the taxi. He has very little recollection of events. He’s mortified by his actions.”
The 28-year-old first offender was fined £520 altogether by Sheriff Derek Reekie.
11 charged over riot
Charges have been laid against 11 people accused of taking part in the Halloween 2022 riot in Kirkton, Dundee. The group face breach of the peace accusations and charges include using a makeshift device to shoot fireworks at police.
Fireworks being let off during Kirkton’s Halloween riots in 2022. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson
Cannabis edibles
A motorist who got behind the wheel after unknowingly eating cannabis edibles at a party the night before has been banned from the road.
Matthew Brand appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted driving through the city’s Kinnoull Street with excess cannabinoid THC (2.2mics/ 2).
The 38-year-old kitchen porter, of York Place, was pulled over by police on Mill Street on December 4 2023.
His pupils were “extremely small,” the court heard.
At a previous court appearance in January, his lawyer had called for a special proof hearing to hear arguments for not disqualifying his client, whose position was he did not know he had taken cannabis
When the hearing was called on March 18, a warrant was issued for Brand’s arrest after he left court, explaining to police he was “fearful” of someone else in the building.
He appeared from custody this week and solicitor Alan Davie said his client had been driving his partner to work and was on his way home when police pulled him over.
“He will be able to make arrangements to get to and from work,” the solicitor said.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC fined Brand £700 and banned him from driving for three years.
Virus terror
A Dundee supermarket worker underwent months of tests for blood-borne viruses after being bitten by a rampaging customer. Nicole Campbell sank her teeth into the staff member after being told to leave Lidl on South Ward Road because of her suspicious behaviour.
Nicole Campbell. Image: Facebook
Post Office robber
A serial armed robber previously jailed for raids on Fife post offices has been jailed again for another robbery.
Thomas McGarva blamed housing officials for allocating him a flat where he could see a sub-Post Office from his kitchen window.
The 47-year-old was jailed at the High Court in Stirling for four years and eight months for using a realistic-looking gold airsoft gun to rob the branch just a three-minute walk from his home in Tamfourhill, Falkirk.
He dragged a shop worker into the post office part of the shop, produced a carrier bag and demanded it be filled with cash, before frantically grabbing bank notes himself.
The court heard the worker “thought he was going to die” but struggled with McGarva and managed to lock the door of the post office section with McGarva still inside, while he called for help.
Armed police arrived and found McGarva still inside. A check of the CCTV found McGarva had hidden the gun in a fridge.
A total of £1140 in notes was found in McGarva’s plastic bag.
McGarva, said to have a long-standing drug problem, appeared for sentence by video link from Low Moss Prison having earlier pled guilty to the January 21 2025 assault and robbery.
McGarva appeared at the High Court in Stirling.
In 2017, he was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for staging four raids on post offices in four days in Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Burntisland and Kincardine, in which he brandished a claw hammer at a lone female worker.
Solicitor-advocate Stephen Dryden, defending, said: “Following his release on home detention curfew for the last six months that sentence he was subject to robust licence conditions – one of which was that he was not to be housed in close proximity to a convenience store or Post Office.
“At the end of that, as he sees it, he was simply cast adrift and placed in temporary accommodation in a block of flats at the base of which was a Post Office and convenience store – the location of this offence.”
Imposing the 56-month jail term, judge Lord Harrower told McGarva: “This is your sixth offence involving a post office.
“According to the social work report that I have received, you would appear to take little personal responsibility for your offending.
“On this occasion, you have even blamed the local authority’s housing department for placing you in a tenancy where you could see the post office from your kitchen window.”
He made McGarva subject to a three-year extended sentence, during which time he can be recalled to prison if he reoffends.
Firebug
A firebug who forced Perth residents to flee in terror from their smoke filled homes has been spared jail. Bryan Soutar set fire to his own furniture at two city centre tenements, causing more than £73,000 of damage to both buildings.
Bryan Soutar.
Decade behind bars for abuser
A vile child abuser who repeatedly tried to rape an under age girl and raped another teenager was jailed for 10 years.
Antonio McCreadie, 58, preyed on his victims during a catalogue of sexual abuse spanning 13 years at locations in the west of Scotland and Fife.
McCreadie, formerly of Alexandria, in West Dunbartonshire, had denied a string of charges during an earlier trial but was found guilty of four sexual offences.
He began targeting his first victim when she was aged between six and molested her on occasions between 2001 and 2010.
He put an unknown substance in her drinks and induced her to watch pornography.
McCreadie recorded himself abusing the girl and tried to rape her.
He subjected a second girl to repeated crimes of assault and rape between 2011 and 2013.
Judge Thomas Welsh KC, at the High Court in Edinburgh, noted claims by McCreadie in a social work background report the victims had lied and conspired against him for financial gain.
The judge told him: “The harm you did is horrendous and the psychological impact continues until today and beyond.”
He told McCreadie: “In passing sentence I take into account your age and the fact you have shown no empathy or remorse for the suffering you have caused.”
To protect the public the sex offender will be supervised on licence for a further three years following his decade of imprisonment.
McCreadie was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely and non-harassment orders prohibiting him contacting or attempting to contact victims were put in place.
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“}]] A round-up of court cases from Tayside and Fife. Read More
