It may be Easter weekend but our Courts and Crime team has been busier than ever. Here’s some highlights from the end of the week.
Cat-napping charge
A man has appeared in court accused of cat-napping in a bid to get a woman to speak to him.
Paul Salt is also alleged to have carried out unwanted gardening work at her home during more than four and a half years of alleged offending.
The 55-year-old is said to have engaged in a course of conduct which caused his victim fear and alarm by repeatedly requesting that she embrace and kiss him.
He is accused of repeatedly contacting her via social media, attending at her home and taking possession of her cat, refusing to return it until the woman made contact with him.
He is further alleged to have asked her to install an app on her phone to allow him to check her whereabouts, done gardening work which he had not been asked to do, used a True Key to enter her property unannounced and sent letters requesting she get in touch with him.
He is thereafter alleged to have visited her workplace and asked family members to get in touch with the woman to ask her to contact him, all between March 2016 and November 2020.
Salt, of Main Street West, Hillend, represented himself at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, where he denied the charge.
Dangerous dog trial
A Dunfermline woman is to stand trial, accused of allowing her dog to maul a nine-year-old girl.
Hayley Fyfe is alleged to have been the owner of a dangerously out of control Staffordshire terrier at her home in the town’s Segal Place on August 11 2019.
The animal is said to have repeatedly attacked and bitten the girl, who has since turned 10, resulting in severe injuries.
Fyfe, who was not present at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, denies the charge.
The 35-year-old will stand trial in October.
Crowbar and machete
Five men have appeared in court accused of using a crowbar to try and break into a Dundee property.
Prosecutors allege Robert Notman, Andrew Ingram, Scott Casey, Scott Gilligan and Steven Haggarty tried to force their way into a property on Springfield in the West End area of the city, on March 30.
Notman and Ingram, both 43, Casey, 20, Gilligan, 33, and Haggarty, 40, made no plea in connection with the allegations at Dundee Sheriff Court.
All five allegedly went to the front entrance of the building with a crowbar and used it to try to break into the building, with the intent to steal.
It is further alleged Casey and Gilligan were found with a machete with a 16-inch blade on the A9 southbound near Auchterarder on the same date.
Notman, of Priesthall Crescent, Ingram, of Cornalee Gardens, Haggarty, of Kelhead Drive, all Glasgow, Casey, of Alexander Street, Clydebank, and Gilligan, of Bank Street, Paisley, had their case continued for further examination and were released on bail.
‘Bit policeman on leg’
61-year-old John Clarke has been accused of biting a police officer on the leg.
He was allegedly found clutching a snapped pool cue in a hostel before threatening to cause serious injury to two women.
Clarke made no plea in connection with the allegations when he appeared from custody at Dundee Sheriff Court.
A petition alleges that Clarke, of Strathmore Lodge, Ward Road, Dundee, was found in possession of the pool cue at the Salvation Army hostel on the same street on March 31.
While at the charge bar of police headquarters, West Bell Street, Clarke allegedly challenged officers to fight, threatened to cause serious injury to two women and bit PC Dylan Croll on the leg.
Sheriff John Rafferty continued the case for further examination and released Clarke on bail.
