Thursday court round-up — Big Weekend brawler and sex offender’s breach
by The Crime and Courts Team · The CourierA Dundee man must complete unpaid work after a fracas with security staff at Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
Barry Westwater, 30, appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court for sentencing after previously admitting assaulting employee Leslie Downie at Campedown Park on May 26 last year.
Fiscal depute Sam Craib said: “The accused attended the event, appeared to be intoxicated and was causing annoyance to other attendees.
“Witnesses were working as security staff at the event and at 4pm, they approached the accused and encouraged him to walk with them to the exit.
“He initially complied.”
However, once moving, Westwater swung a punch towards Mr Downie and was subsequently restrained on the ground.
At this point, he then headbutted Mr Leslie on the head.
Westwater, of Balmedie Drive, was ordered to complete 25 hours of unpaid work by Sheriff Eric Brown.
The sheriff also imposed a year of supervision and ordered Westwater to complete the mentoring for men programme.
Westwater was also was sentenced to another 130 hours unpaid work after admitting breaching a separate community payback order.
Killer had knife in public
Teenage killer Caleb Ferguson was caught by police carrying a knife in Perth less than six months before he murdered rival Cameron Rae.
Ferguson stabbed 20-year-old Cameron to death at a flat in the city’s South Methven Street in April last year.
Earlier this month, he was convicted of murder following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
He also admitted driving a black BMW with cocaine in his system on the M90, near Kinross Services, a month later.
Pervert broke court order
A Dundee sex offender is behind bars after he admitted failing to let police know he had been made homeless.
Nick Smith appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court from custody to admit not adhering to the strict notification requirements which come with being on the sex offenders register.
The 42-year-old admitted that between September 17 and October 8, he didn’t alert police to his change of living arrangements.
In April, Smith was placed on the sex offenders register for a year after being found guilty indecently touching a woman then swinging a bag of glass bottles at her at the Premier Store on Nethergate on August 8 2021.
Sheriff Eric Brown deferred Smith’s sentencing until November 6 and remanded him.
Danger driver caught on dashcam
A driver was “fortunate” not to cause a high-speed crash when she stopped on a M90 exit slip then crossed chevrons to rejoin the motorway after going the wrong way.
Huong Nguyen was seen performing the dangerous manoeuvre while travelling north in her blue Mercedes at Junction 2A- the A92 exit towards Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy – on a dark February evening this year.
The 36-year-old nail salon worker, from Edinburgh, told her trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court that her sat nav had taken her the wrong way and claimed her actions to correct this were careless rather than dangerous.
Dashcam footage from a passing unmarked police car, played in court, shows cars behind Nguyen’s Mercedes braking sharply or moving into the other lane of the slip road to take evasive action as her car comes to a stop with its right indicator flashing.
She was found guilty and banned from driving for 18 months. Nguyen was also fined £400.
Five times the limit
A 46-year-old drink-driver who was nearly five times the limit on a Fife road will be sentenced next month.
Stuart Gay, of Jenny Gray Place, Lochgelly, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to plead guilty to driving a black Land Rover with excess alcohol in his system (106mics/22) on the B9149 road in Lochgelly and elsewhere on September 20 this year.
Sheriff Garry Sutherland adjourned sentencing until November 13 to obtain background reports.
Gay was banned from driving meantime.
Rapist chose to die in jail
A Dundee paedophile refused medical treatment hours before his death in prison.
Rapist Gordon Fraser died less than a year into his seven-year sentence for historical sex attacks on two children.
The 79-year-old had targeted a schoolboy and his stepsister in the late 70s and early 80s.
During sentencing in October 2021, he was told by judge Lord Weir his crimes amounted to a “gross breach of trust”.
Fraser, who had a range of health problems and needed a mobility scooter to get around, was found dead in his cell at HMP Addiewell, West Lothian, on June 5 the following year.
A sheriff has now ruled that Fraser, who had cerebral palsy, died of natural causes and received a “high level of care and treatment” during his time behind bars.
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