COURT ROUND-UP: Violent street and gang attacks, sex offenders and crashes on the A9 among last month's Inverness court business
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Inverness Sheriff Court saw a huge mix of criminal business in June.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last month.
A conflict between Inverness families turned violent when six men staged an attack on a man who had gone to a local graveyard to have a "square go" with one of them.
Kurt Hercher was knocked to the ground and struck with weapons which Inverness Sheriff Court was told could have been a dumbbell and/ or a hammer.
Mr Hercher was left lying bleeding following the sustained assault on December 28, 2019 in Tomnahurich Cemetery, Inverness.
A 17-year-old boy who kicked another youth until he was unconscious has been sent to detention for a year.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the teenager’s victim – neither can be named for legal reasons – suffered a traumatic brain injury from being repeatedly punched and kicked on the ground in an Inverness street on November 20, 2021.
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald was previously told that the casualty spent 22 days in hospital – most of it in intensive care – as doctors battled to save his life.
A 20-year-old Inverness man avoided further custody when he appeared for sentence on his sixth drink-driving charge and second driving while banned offence.
Billy Joe Fraser, of Carnarc Crescent, appeared from custody and admitted driving while banned and while more than three times the drink-drive limit.
An armed attacker inflicted a life-threatening injury on a man after stabbing him in the back with a large kitchen knife during a street attack.
William Smith (23) had earlier clashed with Conor Bennett on the phone during an abusive call before launching the attack on his victim.
Mr Bennett suffered a collapsed lung after he was stabbed and underwent emergency surgery following the assault. He spent almost a month in hospital.
A sex offender who attacked and raped two teenage girls in the Highlands was jailed for six years today after claiming that the victims fabricated evidence.
Toby Deakin first struck when he was aged 15 in an assault committed against a 14-year-old schoolgirl at a house in Inverness on May 31, 2016.
Deakin was aged 19 when he attacked and raped a second victim – who was 16 years old at the time of the offence – in Inverness on October 12, 2020.
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, previously appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted an assault to severe injury.
A woman with Down's syndrome was sexually assaulted by a man with psychological "difficulties" after being followed into her own home by the stranger.
But 38-year-old David Geddes, of Hawthorn Drive, Inverness avoided a jail sentence after Sheriff Gary Aitken read a social work background report and a psychological assessment by a mental health expert.
Instead, Geddes was told he must carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work as a punishment. He must also work with social workers for the next two years. He was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for the same period.
A 20-year-old man was told that downloading images of child abuse was not "a victimless crime" as he avoided a sentence of detention.
Michael Fallows, of Friars Street, Inverness was appearing for sentence before Sheriff Gary Aitken after previously admitting possessing 142 images.
Inverness Sheriff Court had been told that 43 of them were of the most extreme kinds of abuse.
An Elgin woman unknowingly drove on the wrong side of the A9 before a head-on collision.
Samantha Lyons (32), of North Street, thought she still driving on a dual carriageway section of the A9 before facing a head-on crash with a lorry near Cuaich, outside Dalwhinnie.
Lyons swerved back onto the correct side of the road to avoid the crash, but lost control of her Vauxhall Safira on the wet surface and fish-tailed back onto the opposing carriageway and into the path of an oncoming Audi A3.
A boy began downloading indecent images of children in November 2018 when he was aged around 14 and continued until police caught up with him in a raid in January 2022.
During that time, Struan Nicol – now aged 19 years – had amassed still images and videos, including five of the most extreme classified videos, one of which involved a six-month-old baby.
Nicol, of Friars Street, Inverness appeared before Sheriff Sara Matheson and admitted downloading to two devices a total of 18 videos and 70 still images – some of which were both accessible and inaccessible.
A Grantown man has been jailed for eight months for "a vicious and unprovoked assault" on a skateboarder in Inverness city centre two years ago.
Darren Stewart broke the man's jaw in two places with a single punch and his victim required surgery to insert metal bars to repair it, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 25-year-old's co-accused, Callum Emery of Waldshut Road, Lewes avoided jail.
Equipment was stolen from a peat excavation company yard by the former business associate of a well-known Inverness entrepreneur.
The incident happened in August 2018 when 51-year-old Alexander Ferguson, now of Broad Street, Glasgow, broke into the Moy Moss compound near Dalmagarry with others and removed several items of heavy machinery.
A Dutch tourist's foot slipped off his brake when he saw a lorry approaching and hit the accelerator, projecting him into the path of the oncoming HGV.
The two vehicles collided with the lorry being spun round and overturning on the A9 at the Granish junction, near Aviemore, resulting in the road being closed for several hours.
A registered blind woman who was conned out of £9500 by an Inverness man is set to get all her money back or the fraudster is likely to face an 18-month jail sentence.
Daniel Kay, of Longman Caravan Park, Inverness appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentence which had been deferred for him to save up the £9500 he got to carry out maintenance and repair work on two Sutherland crofts.
Three people sustained fractures including the driver of the vehicle which crashed head-on with another car on the A9.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the collision happened on December 28, 2021 at the north end of Aviemore.
A scallop diver had a "temper tantrum" and drove after a woman who swerved to avoid him after he nosed his BMW 6 series out of an Inverness street.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that 26-year-old Scott Mackenzie, of Bruce Avenue, Inverness tailgated Tracy Macpherson (53) from Fairfield Road to Dochfour Drive, where he cut a corner in order to overtake her and force her to make an emergency stop.
A woman who attacked her partner and pulled out clumps of her hair after accusing her of being a "grass" has been jailed for two years.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that 33-year-old Paige Ruddy also spat at police and bit one officer on her arm as they tried to arrest her in a property in Bught Drive, Inverness on February 7 this year.
A drug addict broke into three Inverness business premises, a private house and a beauty salon in Alness and stole over £3300 worth of goods and cash to fund his habit.
Father-of-three Allan Smith (43), of Mackintosh Road, Inverness committed the thefts over six days in August 2021. But because Smith had a record and left blood and DNA behind in the raids, police were eventually able to catch up with him 10 days later.
