Friday court round-up — Nightmare Xmas Eve and Baynes bun fight

A serial thief who raided the Cross Tay Link Road construction site and made off with hundreds of pounds worth of equipment has been jailed.

Ronald Reilly forced his way into an office occupied by Bam Nuttall Ltd at Stormontfield Road, Perth.

The company is working on the £118 million project aiming at connecting the A9 to the A93 and A94 north of Scone.

Reilly, 43, struck between February 16 and 17 this year and made off with a mobile phone, laptop and headset.

Sheriff William Gilchrist told Reilly: “You have an extensive record which includes previous convictions for theft by housebreaking.

“Custody is inevitable.”

Reilly, listed as a prisoner at HMP Glenochil, was jailed for 11 months.

Nightmare Christmas Eve shift

A supermarket worker suffered a nightmare Christmas Eve shift when she was subjected to a tirade of abuse from an unruly customer.

Stephen Skinnider saw red after arousing the suspicions of staff at the Co-Op on St Andrews Road, Anstruther, last year.

The 45-year-old was followed to the car park, where he became verbally abusive to a female worker.

He shouted: “This is not your f*****g stock. F*****g come on then, you f*****g b***h.”

Skinnider, currently remanded at HMP Perth, got into a car and left but was traced by police thanks to CCTV.

He pled guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court to abusive behaviour, with solicitor Calum Harris revealing his client, normally of Lochgelly, had suffered a significant drug addiction relapse.

“It very much falls in line with what has been a long-standing problem with heroin.

“He was essentially trying to source funds to fund that habit.

“He was released from custody in January 2021 and went a whole two-and-a-half years without taking heroin.”

Skinnider was jailed for five months by Sheriff Eric Brown.

Baynes bun fight

A Dundee bakery worker was subjected to homophobic abuse by a woman who threw a roll at another colleague.

Lorna Stevens tormented staff at Baynes in the city centre for two days in a row, September 3 and 4.

Dundee Sheriff Court was told how Stevens, 50, was challenged by an employee about her behaviour at around 11am and she responded by shouting and swearing: “You f*****g grass, come outside”.

Prosecutor Andrew Harding said: “The witness contacted the police.

“At the time of the incident, the accused had a breakfast roll she had taken from the shelf and that was the item she threw when shouting and swearing.”

The following morning, Stevens returned to the bakery and looked at a staff member and made a homophobic slur.

The employee asked what she said and Stevens repeated the insult before police were contacted.

Stevens, of Dundee, pled guilty to assault and repeatedly shouting and swearing.

Solicitor Alexandra Short said: “The problem that she has is she gets quite emotional and upset about things and doesn’t know how to regulate her emotions.”

Stevens, who is already subject to a community payback order, was placed on supervision for six months with a requirement to engage with the Decider Skills behavioural programme.

Sex act acquittal

A couple accused of carrying out a sex act in broad daylight at a Fife Aldi have been cleared of criminality, despite a sheriff saying he believed they did it. The sheriff said he had “no doubt” over what witnesses saw but because of what Gillian Norris and Craig Thomson were charged with, he was unable to convict.

450 hours of filth

Dunfermline  man Paul Greechan amassed more than 450 hours of child sexual abuse footage on his home computers.

Greechan, 36, pled guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to taking or making and possessing indecent photos or pseudo-photos of children, between November 16 2009 and March 6 this year in Law Road.

Prosecutor Sarah Smith told the court police arrived to search Greechan’s home in March and he told them “you will find what you are looking for, there is stuff on my computer” and that he has been depressed for years.

A PC tower with three hard drives, a laptop and an external hard drive were all recovered and a total of 3,859 files were found on the devices, of which 685 images and 1,236 videos were rated category A – the most graphic kind.

The fiscal said the external hard drive appeared to be used as a storage device containing 1,247 backup files and 427 files on one of the PC hard drives were created in a Windows operating system backup.

She said the images were predominately females aged between one and 15 and included children engaged in penetrative sexual activities with adults and other children and sexualised posing.

Defence lawyer Elaine Buist pointed out there was an “element of duplication” of the images.

Sheriff John MacRitchie pointed out backups and storage in a structured way can aggravate rather than mitigate offending.

The sheriff deferred sentencing until January 10 to obtain background reports, continued Greechan’s bail and made him subject to sex offender registration.

‘Split-second’ from disaster

A mental health nurse could lose her job after she was caught on dashcam coming “within a split-second” of causing a head-on smash.

Filipina Cruickshank was filmed driving her Jaguar VX into the path of an oncoming car on the A93 Blairgowrie-Perth road.

The 50-year-old overtook a Volkswagen Taigo when it was unsafe, Perth Sheriff Court heard.

In hair-raising dashcam video her car is seen fishtailing out of control as she accelerates back into her lane, causing other drivers to slam on the brakes.

Watch the video here.

What a waste

A waste sorter who attacked a former pal in Stirlingshire with a glass bottle and a Stanley knife has been jailed for 16 months.

Sean Reeves appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court via a video link from HMP Low Moss to admit assault outside his own home in Murrayfield Place, Bannockburn, on September 26 this year.

The 32-year-old admitted he pursued the man in possession of a knife, kicked him on the body causing him to fall to the ground and struck him on the head with the knife.

He then retrieved a glass bottle from a recycling bin and used it to repeatedly strike him over the head.

The victim was left with a small cut to his cheek.

After the assault, Reeves was spotted acting in a threatening or abusive manner, kicking a neighbour’s door and throwing a brick or similar item at it, causing damage, as well as shouting and swearing.

Solicitor Ken Dalling said his client felt “trouble was brought to his house” and had reacted to it but Reeves may have been impacted by “a degree of paranoia” due to cannabis use.

Gun smuggler jailed

An offshore worker who tried to have a gun smuggled into Dundee, has been jailed for the mandatory five years.

David McGregor was snared after US law enforcement intercepted a package bound for the home of the 50-year-old’s former partner in the city on June 5 2023.

A potentially deadly Sig Sauer 365XL handgun was found hidden inside an electrical item.

The gin was removed and package was sent on so firearms could swoop on McGregor when he took delivery.

He had earlier insisted to his partner he had to be present for its arrival.

She knew nothing about it but told police he had earlier spoken about getting a weapon to keep her safe while he was offshore.

McGregor had earlier told his ex he wanted to get a weapon to “keep her safe” while he was offshore on his £90k-a-year engineering supervisor post.

A search of his phone found he had ordered the weapon through the Telegram app and had suggested he may make further purchases.

McGregor, of Leith, Edinburgh, earlier pled guilty to attempting to acquire and possess the firearm and was given the mandatory sentence at the High Court in Glasgow by judge Lord Scott.

Euan Gosney, defending told the sentencing hearing: “There appears to be no rational explanation that I can provide to the court.

“Aspects in his life were unravelling, his marriage and he had relocated to another part of the country.

“There were certain features in his lifestyle that it was evident something was going to come to a head at some point.”

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