A 32-year-old has pled guilty to punching a man on the head in a serious assault in Dunfermline.
James Johnstone appeared at the city’s sheriff court to admit assaulting Benjamin Higginson to his severe injury and impairment at a property in Gorrie Street, on December 16 2021.
Sheriff Charles Lugton deferred sentence on Johnstone, of Paul Street, Lochgelly, until December 14 to obtain background reports.
Johnstone’s bail was continued.
Lizanec murder trial
A Perthshire mother allegedly murdered by her husband was found “jammed” into the bottom of an airing cupboard at a marital home in Inchture, a trial has heard. Police officers have told how they entered the house. John Lizanec denies his wife Michelle’s murder. The trial later heard from his mother who described events as police surrounded her home in Dundee.
‘Social supply’
A Dunfermline teenager caught with a “social supply” of ketamine and cannabis worth nearly £2,000 has been told to carry out unpaid work.
Cambeul Farish, 19, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to admit possession of the class B drugs at Afton Grove on June 11 this year.
Prosecutor Brogan Moffat told the court Farish, then 18, drew the attention of police by driving at excessive speed and was stopped at around 1.15am.
A search was carried out and within the boot officers found two plastic bags containing drugs.
One contained 37g of ketamine with a street value of £1,480 and the other had cannabis worth £510, Ms Moffat said.
Defence lawyer Stephen Morrison said Farish, of Cedar Grove, pled guilty to the charges on the basis it was a “social supply”.
The solicitor said his client had various friends who would periodically “club together” to buy drugs and share them at no profit.
He said on this occasion there was a clubbing together and Farish, although not his turn to source the drugs, was given £20 in fuel money to induce him to go and was the only one in a position to drive.
Mr Morrison said Farish had “lost his way” by mixing with much older pupils at high school and was introduced to alcohol at 12 and smoking cannabis at 13 but does not want to misuse drugs anymore.
Sheriff Craig McSherry sentenced Farish to 160 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order.
Police job in peril
A detective inspector caught drink-driving while nearly five times the legal limit has been fined and banned from the road. Louise Moffat was stopped by fellow officers as she drove erratically near Lochgelly, on June 4 this year. Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard she would “almost certainly” lose her job as a result.
Christmas curfew exemption
A Ballingry man caught with more than 200 child abuse images and videos has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years and given a curfew with a Christmas time exemption.
David Young , 22, previously admitted possessing the indecent photographs of children between August 29 and September 22 last year.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard police found 177 still images and 36 videos on his mobile phone ranging from category A – the most graphic kind – to category C.
The material involved predominantly male children aged between infant and 12.
Defence lawyer Chris Sneddon said a social work report highlighted a “significant background” in this case including family issues and abuse and his client sought refuge in a chat room online.
He said Young’s interest is in adult men but accepts he had the images through the chat room and “did not consider the real life nature of the images”.
Sheriff Charles Lugton told Young it was a serious offence but took account of the fact he has no criminal record, his personal circumstances, and imposed a direct alternative to prison – an eight-month restriction of liberty order and supervision for 18 months.
The sheriff also made an exemption to Young’s curfew requirements between December 24 and 26 following a request by Mr Sneddon for his client to be able to spend time with family over this period.
Luggage theft helped snare Fife murderer
After David Barnes was found guilty of murdering Fife man Ean Coutts, read our special report on how a stolen bag at Edinburgh Airport was the key to cracking the case.
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