The Dundee and Angus edition of The Courier leads with a court case involving a Dundee chef who appeared on Masterchef being found guilty of pushing his wife down the stairs during a drunken row.
Lewis Donegan was found guilty of domestic assault following a trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
Lewis Donegan: Dundee Cooking School founder and MasterChef star found guilty of domestic assault
The 34-year-old, one of the founders and head tutor of Dundee Cooking Academy and a former contestant on MasterChef: The Professionals, was arrested on March 10 after his wife Sinead made a silent call to emergency services from their Inchture home just before 11pm.
Sentence was deferred on Donegan for six months for him to be of good behaviour.
The Evening Telegraph also features a court case on the front today.
A Dundee thief yelled “Oh my god I’ve killed him, Oh my god, he’s dead”, after his accomplice died in a crash during a high-speed police chase.
High-speed chase
Andrew King, 26, was killed in the crash on January 5 last year, while a passenger in a car driven by Dean Small, 32.
The pair had earlier stolen a quantity of cable from the SSE substation in Baird Avenue, Dundee and led police on a high-speed chase through Dundee.
Crashed into tree
The police chase ended when Small drove too fast on a bend and lost control before crashing into a tree in Camperdown Park.
Later tests found Small, of Landsdowne Square, Dundee, was high on cannabis and well above the legal drink-drive limit at the time of the crash.
At The High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Sandison deferred sentence until next month for reports and Small was remanded in custody.
‘Oh my God, I’ve killed him’ — Cable thief admits killing accomplice in Dundee police chase crash
In the Fife edition, police have appealed for witnesses after two instances of vandalism at Blair Castle.
Vandals spray-painted “abusive and derogatory” slogans on walls of the 19th Century estate, near Culross.
In a separate incident on the castle grounds, a polytunnel and long vine plant, thought to have existed for decades, were damaged.
‘Abusive and derogatory’ vandalism sprayed on Fife’s historic Blair Castle
In the Aberdeen edition of The Press and Journal, housing officers have voted to go on strike, with the knock-on effect of disruption for thousands of council tenants.
Staff claim they are under “mounting pressure” to manage an increased workload due to a rise in housing arrears and homelessness.
79% vote in favour of strike
Grumblings of discontent which increased last month culminated in a ballot of Unite trade union members which has returned a result of 79% of those who voted in favour of strike action.
Now it has been confirmed around 40 members of staff will walk out next month, with exact dates still to be confirmed.
Tenants facing disruption as council housing workers set to strike over workload increase
In The Evening Express, a north-east teenager’s dreams of joining the military are hanging in the balance after he was fined for making sickening racist taunts through a megaphone in the centre of Ellon.
Horrified residents saw Brodie Thomson shouting about “burning” black people as he sat in the boot of a car in Market Street.
Racist term for black people
The 19-year-old also played a loud siren over the megaphone and used a racist term for black people.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how the teen was subsequently charged by police with “causing fear and alarm” on Market Street in October last year.
‘He doesn’t hold racist views’: Teen used megaphone to shout about burning black people
The Glasgow Herald reports there are “some signs for cautious optimism” that the Covid outbreak in Glasgow is stabilising, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
In a daily briefing on Tuesday, the first minister said: “Just in the past two days we think we are seeing signs of cases stabilising”.
Update due on Friday
It comes ahead of the next update on Levels which is due to Friday, potentially paving the way for Glasgow to be moved down to Level 2.
Ms Sturgeon said officials are closely monitoring hospital intensive care admissions, which remain at six Scotland-wide, adding that the government believes that vaccines are “breaking the link between hospitalisations and cases”.
Wednesday's front page of The Herald.
There are “some signs for cautious optimism” that the Covid outbreak in Glasgow is stabilising#TomorrowsPapersToday#scotpapers#BuyAPaper & subscribe: https://t.co/Ms01UHkxsw pic.twitter.com/BK7JuXdp3K
— The Herald (@heraldscotland) May 26, 2021
The Scotsman also focuses on the coronavirus pandemic, reporting Nicola Sturgeon is starting to make a “change in direction” away from a “maximum suppression” strategy as the Scottish Government reacts to rising Covid-19 case numbers.
Ms Sturgeon indicated the number of people in hospital and intensive care rather than case numbers alone would begin to dictate the public health response to the virus.
Wednesday’s The Scotsman: Sturgeon signals shift away from more Covid lockdowns #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/JQa8Mk3eGC
— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) May 25, 2021
She said early data around the vaccine showed it may lower the likelihood of serious illness or death among those infected by Covid-19 as she indicated a potential move away from a “maximum suppression” strategy.
This could see the Scottish Government response of strict lockdowns or restrictions “evolve”, Ms Sturgeon said, when case numbers rise in future.
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