A Dundee thug murdered his fiancee on bonfire night after putting her through a horrific catalogue of domestic violence.
Kenneth Melville, 59, had taken heroin, crack and street valium before he battered Yvonne Barr to death at her flat in Dundee on November 5 2021.
Melville later claimed he had found the 47 year-old mum already badly hurt.
But a judge was told how Miss Barr had previously sought the help of Scottish Women’s Aid due to her suffering at his violent hands.
Melville, who was supposed to be her carer, had left her injured on numerous occasions in the lead-up to the killing.
He admitted murder and was jailed for a minimum 17 years.
Sextortion
Andrea Gkertsos, 20, from Dunfermline was given a one year restriction of liberty order and put on the Sex Offenders Register for three years at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
He pled guilty to nine charges, including one attempted extortion and offences relating to threatening to disclose and release intimate images obtained over social media, earlier this month.
Police Scotland said its investigations identified him as responsible for anonymous accounts on various platforms, which were used to contact teenage females.
He would then demand intimate images or tell the targets the account already had images of them, before demanding money or further pictures to prevent the images being released.
Detective Sergeant Mark Seymour said: “This was a complex investigation as criminals like Gkertsos go to great lengths to hide their predatory activity online behind anonymous accounts and other levels of protections.
“His conduct was malicious and had a lasting effect on the young women he targeted.
“It is thanks to their bravery in coming forward that his vile behaviour has been exposed and I hope the outcome in court provides a degree of closure for them.”
Drug tubs
A Dundee drug dealer who hid thousands of pounds of cannabis in Lurpak tubs has avoided a jail sentence. Police found wraps of cannabis stuffed in the margarine tubs and Rizza ice cream containers at Steven Stark’s Lochee flat during a raid in December 2020. Stark, 37, admitted being concerned in supply of the class B drug.
Prison scrap
A Perth prisoner has been fined £450 for his role in a brawl behind bars.
Michael Collins was one of several inmates involved in the scrap at the jail’s C Hall.
The 37-year-old appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner while acting with others by engaging in a fight.
Co-accused Paul Greig, who was locked up for a raid on a Kirkcaldy shop in 2019, also pled guilty to the charge.
Prosecutors accepted not guilty pleas from Leven man James Ogg, 46, and 31-year-old Keiran Connelly, of Lochgelly.
Fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton told the court an argument erupted between prisoners on February 27 2020 and prison officers attempted to break up the fight.
The struggle lasted for less than a minute.
Solicitor Linda Clark, representing Collins, said: “He is acquainted with Mr Connelly and when this fracas broke out, he believed that Mr Connelly was about to be subjected to something far more serious.”
Greig, 32, of St Kilda Crescent, Kirkcaldy, was absent during the hearing and a guilty plea was submitted by his solicitor.
Sentence was deferred on him until February 8.
Tax – and jail – dodger
Perth businessman Thomas Mullen has narrowly avoided jail for a five-year tax scam after a court heard he had repaid his £200,000 debt. The construction boss cashed customers’ cheques to dodge hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of tax payments and fund his gambling and drug addictions.
Taxi terror
Taxi driver Mohammed Chowdhury has been cleared of repeatedly running over a man’s leg after dropping him and his wife off at their Fife home.
He went on trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court accused of driving carelessly over James Thomson at Lady Anne Court, Crossgates, on Christmas Day 2021.
Mr Thomson’s wife, Helen, told the trial the couple had arrived home shortly before midnight.
She left the car on the pavement side and after looking in her bag for keys, went to the other side and found her husband unconscious and lying face down with his right calf trapped under the back wheel.
Mrs Thomson, 59, said she screamed and shouted to the driver, who came out but was unable to free her husband’s leg.
She claimed Chowdhury then drove forward, causing the tyre to move up to her husband’s thigh, then reversed.
A neighbour told the trial she heard screams and went to her window to see the taxi move twice – once forward and once back – but she could not recall in which order.
Mr Thomson, 58, said he recalled paying the fare and then being on the ground, with the taxi reversing off his leg.
He said he had drunk a bottle of wine and two vodkas but his last drink was about three hours before and did not know how he came to be under the taxi.
He was taken to hospital and said his leg was “fine” but he had a “gouge” at the back of his head.
Chowdhury, 38, of Kinross High Street, said the couple left the taxi so, with the handbrake on, he checked his display for the next fare and prepared his sat nav.
He insisted he had not driven the car after parking it but was unable to explain how the accident happened.
He maintained he did not drive the taxi forward – only reversed it – for fear of crushing Mr Thomson’s head and body.
Sheriff Charles Lugton found the prosecution case not proven and acquitted Chowdhury.
Groomer snared
An Angus predator caught by a hunter group at Arbroath bus station as he waited to meet a schoolgirl from Glasgow has been placed on supervision. Mark Falzon, 42, thought he had been grooming a 13-year-old but was actually being set up by the online paedophile hunters.
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