COURT ROUND-UP: Rapist branded 'pathetic', firm fined over death and drug-dealers thwarted among last month's court business
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
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 this month.
A courageous woman who helped convict an Inverness rapist by making secret recordings has called his latest failed bid for freedom “pathetic”.
Athletics champion Ellie Wilson (25) was raped by Daniel McFarlane while attending the University of Glasgow between December 2017 and February 2018.
McFarlane (24) preyed on Ms Wilson – who has waived her right to anonymity – at her flat in Glasgow's Finnieston between December 2017 and February 2018, but was arrested after the brave rape survivor gathered a catalogue of damning evidence against him.
A man has been jailed for assaulting two women then failing to complete a community payback order imposed for the crimes.
Neil MacDonald (32) of Benula Road, Inverness, had been convicted of grabbing one of the woman by the chest area and attempting to punch her, then attempting to hit her with a laundry iron after an “altercation” at a house.
When another woman intervened, MacDonald grabbed her by the throat and pushed her against a wall, fiscal depute Shay Treanor told Inverness Sheriff Court.
A man who drove a car while almost six times over the legal limit for alcohol has been banned from driving for life.
Donald Fraser (56) of Urchal Place, Stratton, was also ordered to carry out 240 hours community work as a direct alternative to custody and take part in an alcohol treatment programme.
An experienced fish farm worker drowned after he was crushed between a boat and a barge as he tried to disembark a moving transfer vessel.
The firm he worked for, formerly known as Marine Harvest, admitted health and safety failings which could have prevented his death and were fined £860,000 by Sheriff Sara Matheson at Inverness Sheriff Court today.
Her headline sentence was one of £1.2 million but because the company, now known as Mowi, had admitted responsibility at an early stage, she discounted it.
A drug dealer who was caught by police with £18,500 worth of cannabis has been jailed for three years at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Michael Macrae, who had a previous conviction for drug supply, was said by Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald to have "a significant role in the drug trade, having thousands of pounds of drugs in your possession.
"I was told you earn £300-a-week so something doesn't add up. You knew what you were doing and you also knew the risks."
The High Court of Justiciary has reduced the sentence of a man involved in the supply of drugs to the Highlands following an appeal.
Alasdair Finlayson and Cameron Ross both pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, with Finlayson also admitting supplying cannabis, the sentence for which he did not appeal.
Finlayson was originally sentenced to nine years imprisonment in respect of the cocaine charge, with Ross being jailed for 23 months.
A prisoner at Inverness hid a mobile phone in his cell which was found by officers in a routine search.
Elgin man Alan Whyte (34) had been to see the doctor in the prison and on returning to his cell, the device was located in the cardboard tube of a toilet roll.
Police stopped a 22-year-old driver twice within a few weeks at the same spot and on both occasions he had the same amount of drugs in his system.
Lewis Brady, of Woodside Crescent, Inverness was in his Ford Fiesta travelling at 97mph in a 70mph zone on the A9 at Arpafeelie on the Black Isle when officers stopped him on January 26 last year.
Police on mobile patrol in the Hilton area of Inverness saw a BMW and decided to stop it for a routine check.
First offender Douglas Haggart, of Bonawe, Oban was searched and officers found cocaine and heroin with a total street value of £5780 in his possession.
Also recovered on October 16, 2019 was £451.60 in cash, Sheriff Robert Frazer was told.
The former chairman and treasurer of a popular small museum has escaped a jail sentence but ordered to repay £2000 of almost £19,000 he admitted embezzling from the charity over three years.
Instead, 75-year-old William Bound was instructed to carry out 180 hours of unpaid community work and remain under social work supervision for a year by Sheriff Sara Matheson.
Inverness Sheriff Court had been told that Bound faked invoices to conceal his dishonesty and banked the money in several accounts he had.
An axe attacker who claimed he should have "chopped up" his university student ex has been locked up for more than four years.
Joshua Sutherland, of Inverness, left Rosie Gittings badly hurt after turning up at her home in St Andrews, Fife in October 2021 and assaulting her.
Messages on Facebook prompted a stabbing in an Inverness street when the social media author was confronted by his victim.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that 29-year-old Glen Dingwall had written about Ethan Cascarino on November 11, 2020.
A man sustained a fractured cheekbone after an altercation outside a popular Inverness bar and nightspot.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Kai Ross (27), of Corthan Crescent, Aberdeen was drinking heavily in Johnny Foxes on the night of December 16 last year when he squared up to another customer after leaving.
A 19-year-old Inverness man who beat up his heavily pregnant girlfriend at the beginning of this year has been sentenced to detention for 15 months.
Zachary Williams, of Golf View Road, had been sentenced to 225 hours of unpaid community work as part of a community payback order.
A firearms unit and other police were called out when a man wielding an axe smashed a neighbour's window.
But after police arrested 24-year-old Gavin Hampton and took him to hospital for treatment to cuts he sustained on his hands from the broken glass, he was abusive and threatened police and the medical team.
A police officer suffered a hairline fracture of her eye socket after a drunk teenage girl struck her with an unknown object.
The constable was trying to help the 17-year-old get home after the girl turned up at her stepfather's house in Inverness's Hilton housing estate in the early hours of October 8 last year.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court before Sheriff Robert Frazer and admitted an assault to severe injury.
A businessman was jailed for five years today after a police surveillance operation recovered drugs worth more than £500,000 on the streets.
A judge told Serafin Gaik that illicit drugs wreck lives and blight communities as she jailed him for his role in the cannabis supply operation.
Lady Poole jailed Gaik's co-accused Logan MacLeod for 27 months and Pawel Chmielewski for two years, when the trio appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh.
An Iraqi war veteran who survived a bomb attack which killed some of his colleagues downloaded child porn as he coped with a post-traumatic stress disorder and a "childhood trauma".
The 50-year-old married man downloaded indecent images and videos of children over a 10-year period with his lawyer telling Inverness Sheriff Court: "He suffers from survivor guilt."
Edward Nichol, of Duntulm Road, Inverness appeared for sentence before Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald after admitting downloading and possessing the offensive material at properties in Ardersier, Leuchars and Inverness between August 2012 and January 7, 2022.
A Scottish Premiership player was shown the red card by a sheriff for taking his mum's car without permission and then driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
Owura Edwards, a winger on loan from Bristol City to Ross County, was banned from the road for six months and fined a total of £740 after admitting four road traffic offences at Inverness Sheriff Court.
