A drunk man was found by police, slumped unconscious outside a Perth pub and carrying two steak knives.
Mark McPhee, 50, was lying on the pavement outside the Robert Burns Lounge on County Place and appeared to have been the victim of a bottle attack.
He dropped one of his blades while reaching into his jacket for tobacco and the second knife found when he was searched.
McPhee, of Bertha Way, returned to the city’s sheriff court for sentencing having earlier admitted having bladed items in a public place on July 19 2022.
The court heard McPhee had little recollection of how he got outside the pub and his lawyer said he had no explanation for the knives.
McPhee was placed under supervision for a year and ordered him to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work.
Dog attack
A man needed 40 stitches after a dangerous American Bulldog pounced at his face and bit it in the Tesco car park in Arbroath. The dog was in Wayne Stephenson‘s car and the victim was chatting through its window. Stephenson accepted he was in charge of the dangerously out-of-control animal.
Knuckleduster-shaped stun guns
A man who was caught with two illegal stun guns after police forced their way into his Tayport home has been placed on supervision for 18 months.
A concerned relative called the police who attended Stewart Liveston‘s address on Linksfield to carry out a welfare check.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard he was unresponsive and taken to Ninewells Hospital for treatment.
Two stun guns, shaped as knuckledusters with “sparking arcs” over the knuckles, one still in its box, were discovered in his home.
The 46-year-old previously pled guilty to possessing the items on January 6 2021.
Blunt object assault allegation
A man was allegedly knocked unconscious after being attacked with a blunt object at an address on Strathmartine Road, Dundee, on February 2
Suresh Hewage, 38, of Napier Drive, is accused of carrying out the attack by repeatedly striking the man on the head and body with the object until he was unconscious, to his severe injury.
He appeared from custody at Dundee Sheriff Court in private on petition, made no plea and was committed for further examination by Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon before being released on bail.
Groper
A serial sex offender chef who groped a woman in Dundee city centre has been ordered to pay her £1,000 in compensation. Paul Armitt – previously convicted for groping people at a hotel in Kinross – pled guilty to carrying out the attack on the woman last April on Seagate. He also assaulted a police officer.
Child’s toy and glass object
A Dundee woman has admitted attacking her partner in Montrose, then striking again while he was protected by a court order.
Natalie Bruce, 32, admitted both domestic assaults and breaching bail conditions on three occasions when she appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court.
She pled guilty to assaulting the man at Garrison Road in Montrose on January 12 2021 by repeatedly punching him on the head and striking him on the head with parts of a child’s toy and an unknown glass object.
The attack left the man injured and special bail conditions were implemented to protect him but Bruce, of Castle Street in Dundee, breached those by contacting the man on June 21 2021 and January 4 and 5 2022.
On the final occasion she again assaulted the man by repeatedly punching him on the head.
Solicitor Sarah Russo said the pair’s relationship was over and her client had distanced herself by moving to Dundee and sentence was deferred to March 21.
Sheriff Derek Reekie deferred sentencing to March 21 for reports.
Street Valium dealer
A Fife dealer caught with 48,000 street Valium pills after two police raids in Methil less than four months apart has been jailed for two years. Jon Cassidy was busted supplying the drugs from a lock-up garage in Turner Crescent and a flat he was renting in High Street.
Kneed and kicked
Dylan Purvis, 20, admitted assaulting a man to his injury on Kirkcaldy’s High Street in the early hours of May 27 last year by kneeing and kicking him in the face.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard his victim left Society nightclub at about 3am and Purvis approached and they began arguing over a “supposed incident” in the venue earlier.
Purvis struck the man in the face with his knee and then kicked him to the face and ribs.
The fiscal depute said Mr Hamilton was checked by paramedics but did not need further medical intervention.
Defence lawyer Yvonne McKenna said it seemed “some kind of incident” happened in the nightclub but Purvis’s memory of it is “very sketchy” and “he accepts the assault was unprovoked.”
Purvis, of Town Park Way, Glenrothes, was convicted in 2019 for seriously assaulting another person.
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith referred to the previous conviction and said, although he was given the chance to be rehabilitated through offender supervision – and with a curfew as punishment – he went on to commit this assault.
The sheriff said alcohol was an explanation but does not mitigate the seriousness of the “most unpleasant, unprovoked sustained attack”.
The sheriff said both offences in combination give rise to concerns Purvis is a risk to the public but due to sentencing guidelines for young people and because the man suffered no significant injury, he imposed a direct alternative to custody of 160 hours unpaid work.
Cyclist crash
A BMW driver who hit a cyclist on a busy Stirlingshire roundabout, fracturing his spine, has been banned from from the road. Stuart Smillie admitted causing injury through careless driving as he exited the M9 motorway onto the Keir Roundabout, near Dunblane.
Glass attack trial set
A Dundee man has been ordered to stand trial over claims he carried out a glass attack in Barnhill.
Jaden Gray, 22, allegedly assaulted a man on January 28 this year at an address on Strathmore Street, where he resides.
Gray is accused of entering a property uninvited and assaulting the man by striking him on the head with a piece of broken glass.
Prosecutors allege this caused him to suffer severe injury and endangered his life.
Gray has made no plea and will remain in custody after being fully committed for trial.
Grab bag
Gary Thoms, 40, was jailed after stealing a TV, mobile phone, rucksack containing bedding and a hammer from a flat in Dundee as the owner watched. Thoms had been asked to help get the Samsung TV back from the flat on Provost Road but decided to take even more, Dundee Sheriff Court heard.
No ‘impulse control’
An Angus driver banned from the road after police chased him through Kirriemuir at triple the speed limit has been caught behind the wheel while disqualified.
Jamae Boyd appeared from custody at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit driving while disqualified and without insurance on February 3 at Brechin Road in Arbroath.
In autumn 2023, the 34-year-old, of Easterbank in Forfar, was banned after admitting the dangerous chase which concluded with him careering into a wall.
Solicitor Keith Sym said: “He knows he shouldn’t have been driving.
“Mr Boyd has a brain injury. He acts impulsively. He doesn’t have impulse control.
“He foolishly got in the car.”
Sheriff Derek Reekie deferred sentencing until March 14 for reports and said: “I’m bound to say you’re getting close to the custody zone.”
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