COURT ROUND-UP: Rapist and conman among last month's Inverness court business
Inverness Sheriff Court saw a huge mix of criminal business in September.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last month.
A former Inverness youth football coach who was jailed yesterday for a string of serious sex offences called his own behaviour “disgusting” when confronted by paedophile hunters.
Lee Murray (53), who formerly coached Thistle Girls FC in Inverness, was jailed for five years at the High Court in Edinburgh after admitting raping a 15-year-old girl, who cannot be name for legal reasons.
A fraudster who spun an ‘elaborate and highly imaginative web of lies’ to con several people out of more than £73,000 has been sentenced to 33 months in jail.
But 56-year-old Michael Walker's sentence was backdated by Sheriff Ian Cruickshank to his date of remand on October 4 last year, and with only half the sentence being served, he could be released in weeks.
A 56-year-old Inverness man who was involved in a siege-type incident last year was at the centre of a second similar stand-off of "epic proportions" with the police and emergency services in May this year.
It came just weeks before Allan Craig, of Muirtown Street, Inverness was jailed for nine months this summer for the February 2023 drama outside his house.
An Inverness former youth worker who filmed a teenage girl through a window as she prepared for bed escaped a jail sentence at the city’s sheriff court.
Andrew Jessiman (44), of Upper Myrtlefield, appeared for sentence after being found guilty by a jury following his trial in August on the voyeurism offence and a public indecency charge by committing a solo sex act in a room where he could be seen from outside.
An Inverness man’s claim that he could not have carried out a life-threatening assault on his ex partner because he was in bed with his new girlfriend at the time has been rejected by a jury.
The majority verdict on William MacFarlane (25), of Mackay Road, Inverness, was returned after a three-day trial.
• READ MORE: Jury rejects Inverness man’s sex alibi
An Inverness man was jailed for 10 months at the city’s sheriff court because of the “appalling” nature of the string of charges he admitted earlier this month.
They included a vicious attack on his long-term girlfriend in the Asda car park, an attack on a store security guard who came to her aid, robbery of the woman’s car keys and driving at almost three times the legal limit for alcohol.
• READ MORE: Asda car park attack on girlfriend and security worker in Inverness leads to jail
A sheriff has jailed a domestic abuser for 18 months after he bit his estranged wife's finger to leave a permanent mark.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank was told that 27-year-old Lewis Swenson had previous convictions for domestic offences and had twice completed a programme for men who are violent towards their partners.
Police were called to the South Kessock area of Inverness when a man was reportedly wielding a knife and shouting and swearing in the street.
Rafal Grzejszczak was standing outside his home in Carnarc Crescent at 11.49pm on March 15 last year when neighbours were disturbed by the commotion he was making.
A 59-year-old Inverness man who downloaded 260 indecent videos and over 1000 still images of children over an eight-year period will be sentenced next month.
Nigel Gordon, who is living in temporary accommodation in Inverness's Lochalsh Road, appeared at the city’s sheriff court and admitted the offence which occurred between July 2015 and December 2023.
An Inverness pensioner was caught in a "sting" operation by different members of three paedophile hunter groups after he communicated with their decoys thinking they were children under 16.
Raymond Paterson, of Kenneth Street, Inverness appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted four charges of indecent communications with children which occurred between March 1, 2023 and June 11, 2023.
• READ MORE: Inverness pensioner sent sexual messages to paedophile hunters posing as children
Police on mobile patrol spotted two cars speeding along a 50mph dual carriageway at up to 80mph near Inverness Shopping Park on the A96.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that 20-year-old Alexander McDonald and 23-year-old Lewis Mackenzie, both of Ross-shire, were followed and stopped shortly afterwards at around midnight on April 30 last year.
An Easter Ross teenager racially abused an employee of an Inverness take-away restaurant and used the 'N' word while telling him to "Go back to Africa".
Mackenzie Cochrane, of Milnafua, Alness, appeared from custody and admitted using racially aggravated threatening and abusive behaviour against the staff member of McDonald's in the High Street on September 6.
• READ MORE: Teenager racially abused Inverness McDonald's worker
A 32-year-old man who subjected three different partners to a campaign of domestic abuse over almost a decade was jailed for a total of 34 months at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Thomas Smith, of Lochalsh Road, Inverness, had previously admitted a total of six charges all domestically aggravated at various times and at various locations in and around the city between September 16, 2012 and April 11, 2022.
• READ MORE: Inverness man abused three women across a period of almost 10 years
A man was involved in a car chase through city streets after giving an officer a false name and address.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told the drama began when a police officer on foot patrol in an Inverness housing estate became suspicious when he saw three men quickly leave a block of flats.
• READ MORE: Car deliberately driven towards police vehicle in Inverness incident
A man who kicked a woman on the chin causing her to hit her head on a bike stand admitted to a sheriff: "My actions were nothing short of deplorable."
Paul Butler (43) was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to assault and with a background report prepared.
• READ MORE: Inverness incident saw man kick woman in city centre
A court has heard shocking details of how a group of children were subjected to the sight of man engaging in sexual activity.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that the children, all aged under 13, witnessed a man simulate intercourse and then have a sexual act performed on him.
• READ MORE: Inverness man exposed children to sexual activity
Two teenagers who admitted knife attacks on two youths in Inverness last year, leaving their victims bleeding heavily, have been sentenced to custody.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that 18-year-old Calvin Abbott and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tried to rob a 17-year-old youth of his hooded top at the Raining’s Stairs car park on the afternoon of November 7, 2023.
• READ MORE: Teen stabbed in neck in Inverness as duo tried to steal designer hoodie
A married Caithness man who was living two lives seriously assaulted one of his partners to whom he had proposed – because she wanted to know when he was leaving his wife.
Domestic abuser George Harper, of Bremner’s Walk, Wick, had been in a relationship with a woman in Inverness in 2022 and had asked her to marry him just two weeks after they first met – despite him still sharing a home with his spouse.
• READ MORE: Wick man attacked ‘fiancée’ in Inverness after she asked when he was leaving his wife
A teenager who drank daily from the moment he woke up scarred a shopkeeper after he hit him over the head with a bottle of alcohol he had tried to steal.
Dylan Bannister, of Esk Road, Inverness was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after previously admitting assaulting the staff member of Station News in Inverness's Farraline Park on March 15, 2023 by repeatedly punching him on the head and striking him on the head with the bottle to his injury, permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment.
