In case you missed them, a round-up of the stories from Tayside’s courts on Monday.
Birthday ban
A young driver was removed from the roads for causing a crash near Crieff, which resulted in a pensioner being airlifted to hospital.
Alistair Currer-Smith‘s car swerved into the path of another and the head-on smash left two people requiring hospital treatment.
Appearing in Perth Sheriff Court on his 23rd birthday, he was banned from driving for 11 months and fined £1,000.
His victim was left with a chipped back bone.
The full version of this story can be read on The Courier’s website from tomorrow morning.
Scarred for life
A 31-year-old man was jailed for two years yesterday after being found guilty of scarring his victim for life in a pub glass attack.
Ryan Cavanagh was found guilty of assaulting Douglas Black to the danger of his life in The Copper Still pub in Dundee on 18 November 2018.
A jury found him guilty of striking Mr Black on the face with a glass during a brawl he claimed was sparked by Mr Black making comments to a member of his family.
Cavanagh, Clifden Blue Court, Dundee, was found guilty of repeatedly punching his victim on the head to his permanent impairment, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life.
‘Menace to society’
Serial offender Jamie Miller was imprisoned after terrifying a group of women by battering their car windows with a metal pole.
The 31-year-old from Milnathort – once convicted of “driving like a labrador” with his head out of the side window because he could not see through a frosted windscreen – became angry when his girlfriend accused him of cheating and hit his BMW with a hammer.
He responded by smashing the windows of her car, while passengers cowered inside.
Miller, a prolific joyrider, dubbed a “menace to society” for his habit of destroying cars, was jailed for 20 months.
Buttered chicken search
An Army doctor accused of a campaign of coercive behaviour towards his wife claims he stumbled across evidence of an affair as he searched the web for a recipe for buttered chicken.
Lieutenant Colonel Simon Bloodworth took the stand at Perth Sheriff Court to deny allegations including controlling his wife’s finances and banning her from going back to work, as well as threatening to kill the family Chihuahua.
He told the court he suspected his wife was having an affair because as he searched for the chicken recipe on an iPad, he discovered multiple internet searches for housing and jobs in Cheshire, where she had a male friend.
He said he was joking about killing the dog.
The trial continues and you can read the latest evidence here.
