A man who admitted breaching his ASBO by banging, shouting and swearing at his Dunfermline home claimed to police he was just “speaking to seagulls”.
Michael Battershill, 38, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court from custody to plead guilty to breaching the order without reasonable excuse in Tweed Street on April 2 this year.
The ASBO prohibits him playing loud music, being verbally abusive to neighbours, banging and shouting or swearing loudly or otherwise causing alarm or distress to people within the vicinity of his home, for a three-year period.
Prosecutor Brogan Moffat told the court that around 5.10pm witnesses heard loud banging, shouting and swearing from Battershill’s home address.
They contacted police and he was arrested and taken to Dunfermline police station
Mr Moffat said: “He said he did not bang or shout and was speaking to the seagulls and throwing them some bread”.
Sheriff Krista Johnston warned Battershill not to offend again and deferred sentencing to April 23.
Battershill said: “I definitely don’t want to be in jail on my birthday”.
Police chase
A disqualified driver who led police on a manic, high-speed chase across the Kingsway in Dundee in the middle of the day has been jailed. Calvin Burnett went the wrong way on a roundabout and crossed over the central reservation during the wild incident. Click here to see the shocking dashcam footage.
Head cut threats
A man made threats to cut off the head of a former friend after they fell out over a debt.
Wayne Dickson, 44, a prisoner Perth, appeared by video-link at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for sentencing, having admitted making the threat on August 31 last year in a phone call and voicemail.
On September 21, he repeatedly threatened the man and a female with violence – saying “I’m going to gouge your f****** eyes out” – in Park Road, Kirkcaldy, and breached bail conditions.
Defence solicitor Martin McGuire said his client’s last jail sentence was in 2018.
Last year, his stability was disrupted after his partner died and he fell out with a neighbour, which led to him losing his home.
He had stayed his threats victim but they had fallen out over money.
Sheriff James Williamson jailed Dickson for a year, backdated to September 23 when he was remanded in custody.
Download ‘mistake’
A Fife sex offender claimed he did not know pornography he downloaded contained child abuse material, a court has heard. Alexander Casement admitted downloading a cache of adult material that also contained videos of children being abused at the highest level of depravity but argued he should be let off because he did not do it deliberately.
Drug-driver
A drug-driver caught with thousands of pounds worth of cannabis has been handed a community payback sentence.
Jaymi Clarke, 33, motored through Perth city centre with cocaine in his system just before Christmas 2022.
Perth Sheriff Court heard when police approached his Vauxhall Zafira on St Caterine’s Road, his passenger made a swift exit and vanished into the night.
Officers noted a strong smell of drugs and found a bag of herbal matter in the footwell, later confirmed as 500g of cannabis, worth about £2,500.
Clarke, of Cotburn Crescent, Burntisland, pled guilty to being concerned in the supply of the class B drug on December 23 2022.
He further admitted driving on Calendonia Road, Dunkeld Road and St Catherine’s Road with excess benzoylecgonine (324mics/ 50) in his system.
His solicitor Alan Davie said: “He concedes that this was at a low point in his life.
“He was having financial difficulties and was using cocaine on a daily basis.”
The court heard Clarke, who has a drug-driving conviction from 2024, has been substance-free for 18 months.
“I’ve turned my life around,” he told Sheriff Clair McLachlan.
The sheriff said: “It is to your credit you have made good progress but these are not insignificant crimes.”
Clarke was ordered to carry out 130 hours unpaid work and banned from driving for three years.
Murder
A killer stabbed to death a much-loved Fife grandfather in his home before going on a spending spree with the victim’s bank cards in St Andrews. John Farquhar was given a life sentence and ordered to serve at least 22 years in prison after he repeatedly stabbed his neighbour Garry Thomson to death with a knife at a flat in Guardbridge.
Nightclub attackDillon MacPherson, 22, repeatedly punched and kicked a man to the head and body during at Aura nightclub, South Ward Road, on April 6 2023.
The victim suffered a chipped tooth.
It was revealed at Dundee Sheriff Court the pair were known to each other but were “not friends”.
CCTV captured MacPherson delivering “five or six” blows to the head before kicking him to the head four times.
Solicitor Jim Laverty said: “What comes across (in the social work report) is Mr MacPherson’s remorse. This was a loss of control.”
Sheriff Paul Brown ordered MacPherson, of Step Row, to pay £600 in compensation.
Rapist remanded
Thomas Hunt, 21, has been remanded in custody after being found guilty of raping two teenage girls in Dundee. He attacked the youngsters, aged 14 and 15, at an area of ground by Lochee Burn, near the NCR building, in 2021.
Barking dogs row
A Perth woman has been fined after shouting at her neighbour because she believed her dogs had woken her children.
Chelsea O’Rourke hurled abuse at the woman as she relaxed in their communal garden area.
After the woman told the 27-year-old she did not know what she was talking about, O’Rourke replied: “I will f***ing end you. You’re f***ing dead. I’m going to kill you, I’m going to batter you.”
Her solicitor said O’Rourke was upset by the dogs barking as her children were trying to sleep.
He added that since the incident O’Rourke and the neighbour had patched things up and are now friends.
O’Rourke, of Union Street, admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at her home address on August 30 last year and was fined £200.
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