The Thursday court round-up.
Halloween horror
A Fife man will be sentenced after ranting on Hallowe’en while armed with a knife.
HMP Perth inmate Nico Braithwaite was not present when his solicitor David Bell pled guilty on his behalf to a charge of assaulting his former partner and possessing a blade in Kennoway on October 31 last year.
Braithwaite admitted that at Bishops Court, he attacked the woman by repeatedly punching her on the head and repeatedly seizing her by the body.
He admitted throwing her to the ground and seizing her by the hair.
Braithwaite also admitted seizing the woman by the body again and pulling her from where she was sitting and pushing her on the body and against a wall.
Furthermore, he admitted acting in a manner likely to cause fear or alarm in that he smashed a window at the property and repeatedly threatened others there with violence, before brandishing a knife while shouting and swearing.
The 23-year-old will be sentenced on April 8.
Death crash driver jailed
Lorry driver Ian Moorhouse was jailed for causing a crash which killed Gleneagles Hotel housekeeper Amanda Boag. Stenhouse pulled in front of the mother-of-four’s car in an attempted right turn as she made her way back from work.
Data breach charge
A 24-year-old man allegedly breached data protection laws while working at Dundee City Council’s social work department.
Liam Buchan will stand trial later this month, accused of accessing files of five named individuals, without any reason or business for doing so.
Buchan, of Urquhart Road, Aberdeen, denies that at several locations including Drummond Forrester House, South Road, Dundee, and the city’s Junction Young Persons Centre on Strathmore Avenue, he did “knowingly and recklessly” obtain personal data without consent of the data controller.
Prosecutors claim he accessed the files during his course of employment with the local authority’s social work, between July 20, 2018 and October 29. 2018.
The charge is an alleged breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.
A trial has been set for March 24.
Deviant DJ jailed
The deviant DJ who set up Perth FM has been jailed for 12 years for “grotesque” child abuse offences. Former Radio 1 presenter Mark Page regularly visited the Philippines to feed his perversions, as well as offending online from his home in Stockton.
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Perth man who twice attacked a female police officer.
Rudi Dobrescu spat in the face of Constable Kathryn Knox two times on January 11, 2020.
It happened in Perth’s South Methven Street and later at Perth Royal Infirmary.
The 43-year-old, of Speygate, had also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in St John’s Place and at PRI and during a journey between the two.
Dobrescu shouted, swore and repeatedly refused to leave the doorway of a pub, after being refused entry.
He also repeatedly banged his head on the wall of a police van, struggled with officers and behaved aggressively.
Dobrescu was due to be sentenced at Perth Sheriff Court.
Solicitor Billy Somerville announced his firm had withdrawn from acting on behalf of Dobrescu, after they had not heard from him.
Sleepy killer
A killer had to be taken to the cells in Dundee after falling asleep in the dock as he was being sentenced for his latest offence. Michael Williamson battered a woman at a park in Cupar. He previously served time for the culpable homicide of his then-partner.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
