Arbroath Sheriff Court’s most prominent figure, Sheriff Norrie Stein, stepped down this week after almost 20 years. Here, he tells Geraldine McKelvie about some of the highs and lows of his time in Angus.
When he arrived in Angus in September 1991 to take up his position as resident sheriff at Arbroath Sheriff Court, Norrie Stein was perhaps unaware of just how much of an attachment he would develop to the town and its “resilient” people.
But almost 20 years on, he is known just as much for the contribution he has made to the community, including most notably the award-winning Community Alcohol Free Environment (CAFE) project, as his legal role.
In 1996, disturbed by the effects alcohol and drugs were having on young people in the area many of whom came before him in the courts he spearheaded the campaign for an alcohol-free cafe in the town. Today, everyone from the volunteers and staff who help with the day-to-day running of the project to the young people who pop in after school still greets him with great affection when he drops into the premises on the site of the former Arbroath FC Supporters’ Club at Brothock Bridge.
Some even credit the project with turning their lives around.
“One girl, who was 13 at the time, told me that if it wasn’t for the CAFE project she and her friends would be getting involved in things they didn’t want to be involved in,” Sheriff Stein admits. “That’s a very moving comment.”
Such is his respect for the young people he has become involved with that he nominated one of the project’s first clients, Paul Hardie, for the Beacon Prize for Scotland in 2006 a major volunteering award which Mr Hardie went on to win.
Under Sheriff Stein’s guidance, the CAFE project has also extended its remit to cater for adults with learning disabilities.
“It breaks my heart that there seems to be so little provision for people with learning disabilities,” he says. “So we’ve started having dedicated evenings for them twice a week. We have around 40 or 50 people coming on a Monday and now a growing number on a Tuesday, too.”
As well as his friends at the CAFE project, Sheriff Stein is also held in high esteem by the staff at the court who he says he will miss very much. Despite the rapport that exists between them, he admits he had a rather “uncertain” start to life in Arbroath thanks to a well-timed practical joke.
Shortly after arriving in the town, he was bemused to receive a letter purportedly from a trucking company asking if lorry drivers parking near his new property could use his toilet in anticipation of a proper toilet block being built at a later date.
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The letter added, “Perhaps your wife would be interested in earning herself some pin money by providing tea and cooked breakfast for the truckers in the morning.”
Much to Sheriff Stein’s amusement, he discovered that the author of the letter was in fact the then sheriff clerk and it has taken pride of place on the wall of his office ever since.
“I will miss everybody,” he says. “The staff are wonderful.”
However, his time in the town which he openly admits he has grown to love has been tinged with sadness. Having dealt with just two criminal cases involving heroin prior to 2000, he has watched abuse of the drug spiral out of control over the last decade devastating many lives in the process.
“Heroin has just run rife through the community and that’s very worrying,” he says. “I almost never saw heroin cases before the millennium but now people are dying because of it and getting things like HIV and Hepatitis C. It causes me great concern, as does the decline in family life. I’ve noticed that now I rarely see fathers. But you have to ask yourself what is a father?”
Nonetheless, he insists that his mandate has always been to “help” those whose lives have been blighted by drugs and social problems.
“What a lot of people sometimes don’t understand is that those who come before the courts are very often themselves victims,” he says. “They have problems and difficulties. What I’m really going to miss is trying to help the large number of needy and vulnerable people who come before the courts, because it’s wonderful when things turn out well.
“I’ve been quite fortunate over the years in some respects because people I have dealt with now sometimes come up to me in the street and speak to me. There are people who really have turned their lives around after being involved with the courts.”
Admittedly, his philosophy has been somewhat influenced by his late friend Ken Keddie, another pioneer of the CAFE project. He and Dr Keddie, who was a consultant psychiatrist at Sunnyside Royal Hospital in Montrose for over 30 years, often used to sit at Arbroath harbour eating fish suppers and lamenting the treatment of the most vulnerable members of society.
“He inspired me in a lot of ways,” Sheriff Stein says. “It was he who told me that we all struggle in life, but some of us without a great deal of hope.”
The letter added, “Perhaps your wife would be interested in earning herself some pin money by providing tea and cooked breakfast for the truckers in the morning.”
Much to Sheriff Stein’s amusement, he discovered that the author of the letter was in fact the then sheriff clerk and it has taken pride of place on the wall of his office ever since.
“I will miss everybody,” he says. “The staff are wonderful.”
However, his time in the town which he openly admits he has grown to love has been tinged with sadness. Having dealt with just two criminal cases involving heroin prior to 2000, he has watched abuse of the drug spiral out of control over the last decade devastating many lives in the process.
“Heroin has just run rife through the community and that’s very worrying,” he says. “I almost never saw heroin cases before the millennium but now people are dying because of it and getting things like HIV and Hepatitis C. It causes me great concern, as does the decline in family life. I’ve noticed that now I rarely see fathers. But you have to ask yourself what is a father?”
Nonetheless, he insists that his mandate has always been to “help” those whose lives have been blighted by drugs and social problems.
“What a lot of people sometimes don’t understand is that those who come before the courts are very often themselves victims,” he says. “They have problems and difficulties. What I’m really going to miss is trying to help the large number of needy and vulnerable people who come before the courts, because it’s wonderful when things turn out well.
“I’ve been quite fortunate over the years in some respects because people I have dealt with now sometimes come up to me in the street and speak to me. There are people who really have turned their lives around after being involved with the courts.”
Admittedly, his philosophy has been somewhat influenced by his late friend Ken Keddie, another pioneer of the CAFE project. He and Dr Keddie, who was a consultant psychiatrist at Sunnyside Royal Hospital in Montrose for over 30 years, often used to sit at Arbroath harbour eating fish suppers and lamenting the treatment of the most vulnerable members of society.
“He inspired me in a lot of ways,” Sheriff Stein says. “It was he who told me that we all struggle in life, but some of us without a great deal of hope.”