A 58-year-old Fife man has appeared in court accused of multiple rapes, stalking offences, and a life-endangering assault.
Philip Berry appeared in private at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to face ten charges.
He faces four allegations involving rape, including one of indecent assault and rape to injury and another indecent assault and rape.
Berry is said to have carried out a life-endangering assault, an assault to injury and two stalking offences.
He is also accused of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Berry made no plea and was committed for further examination and released on bail.
His next court appearance is to be confirmed.
Drink-driver jailed after crash
A drink-driving Perth woman who badly injured three men when she smashed her car into a bookmaker’s shop has been jailed for three years. Donna Stewart ignored her victims’ pleas to slow down before she ploughed into a branch of William Hill in Inverness city centre. Stewart, 46, was originally charged with attempted murder but pled guilty to the lesser charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving while intoxicated.
Voyeur sentencing deferred
A voyeur who spied on a bathing woman through a hole he made in a bathroom door will be sentenced next month.
David Cosgrove had his sentencing further deferred at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
He was caught when the woman – now 19 – became suspicious and started filming the bathroom door at the property and saw him squatting down and peering through it.
He had previously removed the door handle, leaving a small hole.
Cosgrove, 48, of Midlothian, previously admitted a voyeurism charge under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act.
He pled guilty to observing the young woman doing a private act by peering through a hole in a bathroom door without her permission while she was in a state of undress and preparing to take a bath in April 2020.
Sheriff Francis Gill had adjourned sentencing to obtain background reports and placed Cosgrove on the Sex Offenders Register.
The reports were not ready when he returned to court on Wednesday.
Funeral director
A Fife funeral director has admitted sexually assaulting a woman at her home in Methil. Alex Little appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court and pled guilty to cuddling his victim, unclipping her bra and fondling her breasts, all while she was intoxicated and incapable of giving consent at the property on May 6 this year.
Benefits cheat
A 66-year-old benefits cheat has admitted claiming nearly £13,000 of employment aid to which he was not entitled.
Ian Black appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and pled guilty to unlawfully claiming Employment and Support Allowance between November 10 2015 and January 31 2022.
The charge states he knowingly failed to notify the Department for Work and Pensions about a change in circumstances he knew would affect his benefits.
He failed to report he had capital in excess of the prescribed limit and obtained £12,741 he was not due.
Black, of Ballantine Place, Perth, represented himself during the brief hearing before Sheriff Francis Gill, who deferred sentence for a week to give the accused the chance to speak to a lawyer.
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