INVERNESS SHERIFF COURT ROUND-UP: Fairways Business Park fire accused and alleged attempted murders among last month's court business
Inverness Sheriff Court saw a huge mix of criminal business in May.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last month.
Two men have appeared separately in private at Inverness Sheriff Court in connection with the fire that destroyed several premises at the city’s Fairways Business Park in March.
• READ MORE: Inverness court deals with second man accused over business park fire
A second person has appeared in private at Inverness Sheriff Court charged with the attempted murder of a man in a popular Inverness nightspot last month.
Aiden Mackenzie, aged 20 from Westhill, Inverness, made no plea to two charges - one of an alleged glassing in Johnny Foxes on April 13 and the second of behaving in a threatening and coercive manner towards his partner or ex-partner between August 1, 2024 and the date of the alleged glass incident on April 13.
• READ MORE: 2nd man charged with attempted murder over nightspot attack in Highland capital
A cocaine dealer was caught by police when the 62-year-old addict was carrying out a sale in an Inverness supermarket car park.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that officers had received intelligence about Steven Murray's illegal activities and arrested him at Tesco Extra, at Inverness Shopping Park, on March 25 last year.
An upsetting remark towards a teenage boy walking across an Inverness city centre bridge with an adult companion prompted a violent response.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that 35-year-old Darren Jamieson, of Rosehaugh Road, Inverness asked Ian Devaney what he had said to the boy and then punched him in the face.
• READ MORE: Inverness bridge punch leaves victim with double fracture of jaw
A 33-year-old Inverness woman who was involved in the sale of cannabis and cannabis-based products which had a potential value of almost £50,000 has avoided a jail sentence.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Lauren Forsyth, of Fir Place, Culloden recruited for a brief time her childhood friend, 34-year-old Danielle Shearer, of St Valery Avenue, Inverness to help her in her "commercial-scale" venture.
• READ MORE: Inverness cannabis dealer warned after ‘commercial dealing on a significant scale’
An Inverness teenager carried out two assaults on different people a few days later.
Cameron Young (19) repeatedly punched a man on the head, struck him on the body with a traffic cone and grabbed him by the body on July 20 last year in Nairn High Street.
An Inverness man who attempted to break into a house was caught on CCTV.
Stuart Lilley (50) was using tools during his bid to get inside a property in Southside Road on July 5, last year.
• READ MORE: Inverness man who attempted to break into a house was caught on CCTV
A 25-year-old woman faked a faint so her pal could rob an elderly woman and her daughter of a handbag near an Inverness primary school.
At Inverness Sheriff Court, Courtney Smith, whose address was given on court papers as Myrtletown Park, Westhill appeared by video link from remand for sentence on the robbery she admitted on April 15.
A motorist who had just bought a car two days before panicked when he saw a police patrol as he drove through the Merkinch area of Inverness.
Sheriff Sara Matheson heard that 23-year-old James Milne, of Kessock Road, Inverness was concerned that he did not have the proper paperwork for the vehicle so drove off at excessive speed when he spotted the officers.
Police attention was drawn to a car being driven in an erratic manner along an Inverness street and decided to stop it by pulling in in front of it.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that when officers saw 51-year-old Ronald Wheelhouse, of the city’s Bridgeview Drive, in the driver's seat, they suspected he was intoxicated and tested him for drugs.
• READ MORE: Inverness drug-driver was four times the legal limit for cocaine
Two suspects are to stand trial accused of trying to kill and rob a man in Inverness.
Nathan Hunter (32) and James Marshall (33) are said to have committed the crime in different streets in Inverness on May 17 last year.
• READ MORE: Inverness pair to stand trial for attempted murder
An Inverness thug who tried to smash his way into a Ross-shire house with a nail-embedded wooden plank had been released early from prison after serving less than half its term.
But at Inverness Sheriff Court, 25-year-old Patrick Stewart, of Longman caravan site, Inverness was ordered to serve out the remaining 213 days and had eight months added after admitting four offences committed in Dingwall on April 19 - five months after he was liberated on licence.
• READ MORE: Inverness thug smashed his way into a Dingwall house
A former Royal Navy officer who sexually assaulted two girls in his house was jailed for a total of 18 months and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that 67-year-old Gary Powell, a former naval Petty Officer who served during the Falklands conflict, assaulted one girl by repeatedly touching her body and squeezing her breasts between June 1 and 31, 2023.
• READ MORE: Nairn pervert jailed for sexually assaulting two girls
A mentally ill man was inexplicably left unattended by his carer and went on to sexually assault a 12-year-old girl in the toilet of an Inverness store.
But Inverness Sheriff Court heard that it was not 35-year-old Philip Mackenzie's fault for pulling the girl into the disabled toilet inside The Range in Inverness Shopping Park on February 2 last year, pushing her to the floor, attempting to remove the girl’s clothing and repeatedly touching her on the body.
A 23-year-old man has appeared in private at Inverness Sheriff Court in connection with a fire in Dingwall on Sunday morning which closed the High Street for around five hours.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was called to the scene in the town around 6.15am and the road later reopened around 11am.
• READ MORE: Inverness man in court over Dingwall fire
A Drumnadrochit man thought he was asking a child for sexually intimate pictures when he was actually talking to a police officer.
Scott Waddell (29) spoke to “Izzie”, in reality an undercover officer, between August 29 and September 20, 2023 while staying at Comar Gardens, Beauly.
