COURT ROUND-UP: Rapist jailed, knife attacks and animal cruelty among last month's Inverness court business
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Inverness Sheriff Court saw a huge mix of criminal business in July.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last month.
A man who was shot to be brought under control having hurled petrol bombs at police is to remain in hospital.
Krzystof Andruczak turned on a team of officers who went to his flat in Inverness on March 31 last year.
The 41 year-old – who was wearing a gas mask and was in camouflage clothes – was also armed with two knives and a metal chain.
A foreign wind farm worker killed his best friend when he drove his van out of a junction onto the A9 and into the path of an oncoming lorry after looking in the wrong direction.
Tomasz Aleksandruk, a Polish national now living in Lehrte in Germany, was at the wheel of a Ford Transit van with 34 year old German pal and workmate Maik Balzat in the passenger seat.
He pulled out of a junction from an unclassified road at Mains of Balavil, about a mile north of Kingussie on June 24, 2020, and was hit by the HGV.
A man who raped an intoxicated woman has been jailed for seven years.
Donald Macrae (29) pounced on the woman at a property in Inverness on June 29, 2019.
Court papers state that the victim was unable to give consent as she was intoxicated at the time.
Two people have been jailed for 18 months each after they were stopped by police in a car on the A9 outside Inverness, leading to the discovery of cocaine worth up to £10,500.
But although officers only found a trace of the Class A narcotic in the Skoda at Daviot on July 22, 2021, the vehicle's occupants later admitted they had concealed more of the drug internally.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that 63-year-old Carol Knox of Drovers Court and 55-year-old Calum Findlay of Broomhill Road, both Muir of Ord were taken to Burnett Road Police Station in Inverness where they made their confessions.
A teenager who attacked a passing cyclist and robbed him of his mobile phone will be sentenced later this month.
Calum Ross (18), described as a detainee at Polmont YOI, appeared by video link at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted a charge of assault to injury and robbery.
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that the incident happened at about 8pm on January 4 in Inverness High Street.
Police stopped a car in Inverness city centre because of concern for a reported missing person.
They found 25-year-old Ryan Farquhar behind the wheel in the early hours of May 10 and officers quickly realised he was under the influence of alcohol.
However, a further check revealed that Farquhar, of Inshes Mews, Inverness had tested positive for alcohol five months earlier on December 12, last year after he ran into the back of another car near Inshes Primary School junction.
An Inverness man told a sheriff "I am not going to do it" after being ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid community work.
Campbell Freeman, of Knocknagael, was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after being found on the route to his former boss's house with a baseball bat on July 5 last year.
Freeman had just been sacked by his managing director and made threats towards her which resulted in the woman phoning the police.
A conflict between Inverness families which turned violent when a victim was outnumbered six to one in an city graveyard has led to one of the gang being jailed for 36 months.
Only 39-year-old Scott Hunter, of Torvean Avenue, Inverness was prosecuted for the attack on Kurt Hercher who was knocked to the ground and struck with what Inverness Sheriff Court was told could have been a dumbell and/or a hammer.
Mr Hercher was left lying bleeding on the ground following the sustained assault on December 28, 2019 in Tomnahurich Cemetery.
A dog starved to death in a Nairn property after being abandoned by the man who was supposed to be looking after it.
The American Staffordshire bull terrier named Duke chewed anything that was in the house in Church Street including a sofa, its foam filling and food tins in its vain battle to survive.
Other household items had also been chewed as the one-and-a-half-year-old canine struggled to stay alive in its unheated accommodation between September 23, 2021 and February 4, 2022.
A thief who stole a till off the counter of a food stall in Inverness's Victorian Market has had sentence deferred for a background report.
Sheriff David Sutherland also called for a restriction of liberty order assessment on 31-year-old Scott Burns after hearing that he had his first stable address in Murray Terrace, Inverness.
Burns appeared from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted the theft from Highland Hog Roast on July 10 this year.
A case of mistaken identity led to a peacemaker being knocked unconscious after one punch broke his jaw.
The innocent bystander's assailant was 25-year-old Morgan Stubbings who was described by Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald, who jailed him for 21 months, as having "a significant record for violence".
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the incident in the city's Union Street was on November 19, 2022 – the day before Stubbings was due to go on holiday. He has been in custody ever since and his sentence was backdated.
A 22-year-old Inverness man with a poor record of offending punched a parked car and it was filmed on CCTV.
When a local resident in Bridgeview Drive, Inverness reported the incident to police, the footage was viewed and it led to the arrest of Lee Drummond, who lived nearby in Craigton Avenue,
However, when police went to his home in the early hours of October 23, last year, the officers noticed a laceration on Drummond's body and offered medical attention, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
A woman who caused a head-on crash on the A9 which seriously injured three people including herself has been fined £715.
Emma Baillie, of Cairnview Road, Aviemore was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to resit the extended driving test of competency before getting her licence back.
The 36-year-old had previously admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and sentence had been deferred by Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald for a background report.
A 38-year-old Inverness woman was jailed for 15 months yesterday for an "absolutely disgraceful" assault and attempted robbery of an 83-year-old holidaymaker who was walking with an 80-year-old man friend in broad daylight beside the River Ness.
But the plucky pensioner couple fought back Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
As Gemma Robertson grabbed Rita Exely's handbag and tried to wrestle it from round her neck, her male companion seized Robertson's hoodie top forcing her to wriggle out of the garment to make her escape, while Ms Exely herself grabbed Robertson's ponytail and tried to detain her.
An aggressive drunk was ejected from an Inverness pub only to return later with a knife.
But Inverness Sheriff Court heard that 60-year-old Robert Campbell of the city's Anderson Court, was disarmed by another patron of the Nip Inn, in Grant Street, and police were contacted.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir told Sheriff Robert Frazer that the incident occurred on August 22, last year when police were contacted by the barman about Campbell being aggressive.
A jealous husband who brutally stabbed his estranged wife's new partner to death in an attack at her home has been jailed for life.
Anthony Angelosanto sent messages to his son stating "am going to kill him tonight" and that he was going to kill "mum's boyfriend" shortly before he armed himself with a large knife and launched the fatal assault on Roderick 'Roddy' Georgeson.
A judge told Angelosanto: "From the evidence in the trial it is clear that you felt extreme anger towards your estranged wife and jealousy of her partner Mr Georgeson."
A man who inflicted life threatening stab injuries on another in a public place in Inverness has been jailed.
William Smith (24) assaulted Conor Bennett on a street in Inverness on July 28 last year.
He had earlier clashed with Mr Bennett on the phone during an abusive call.
A 48-year-old thief who targeted churches and schools has been given a chance to stay out of jail by a sheriff.
But Stuart Lilley has to stay away from educational or religious establishments for the next four weeks while a drug treatment assessment is being done and remain at his home in Dalcroy Green, Croy between 8pm and 8am.
However, Lilley was warned by Sheriff Gary Aitken that "custody is still very much uppermost in my mind, given the seriousness of the charges. I am far from persuaded that a community-based disposal is appropriate."
A teenage boy who began downloading indecent images of children when he was aged around 14 and continued for three years has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
Struan Nicol, now aged 19, also had restrictions on his internet use imposed, was placed under social work supervision for three years and on the Sex Offenders' Register for the same period.
Nicol, of Friar's Street, Inverness admitted amassing 70 still images and 18 videos – including one of the five most extreme videos involving a six-month-old child – on two devices between November 2018 and January 2022.
A 30-year-old Highland man who groomed a boy under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity has escaped a jail sentence.
Married but now divorced Thomas Baird had been warned by a sheriff he faced a "custodial sentence of a considerable length."
But after reading a background report and hearing from defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell, Sheriff Gary Aitken instead decided to impose a "robust community payback order" and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The SHPO restricts Baird's internet activity and contact with children under the age of 16 for the next five years. He was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for the same period.
A 27-year-old Aberdeen man who fractured a fellow reveller's cheekbone after an altercation outside a popular Inverness bar and nightspot has been ordered to pay his victim £1500 in compensation.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Kai Ross, 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.
The other man was struck once in the face and an ambulance was called, such was the swelling, fiscal depute Robert Weir told Sheriff Gary Aitken.
