The Crown appealed after the sheriff refused to grant an order under section 288C of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. The sheriff reasoned that there was not a substantial sexual element in relation to charges 1 and 4 on the indictment. However, the Crown appealed this decision.  One of [...]

Mustafizur Rahman, aged 44, was found guilty of raping the 18-year-old in the back of his car.  The teenager had been out drinking on the first day pubs had reopened after lockdown. She was seen on CCTV leaving a bar in Kelty with others. She then walked on her own [...]

Barry McAuley and Martin Stewart have been found not guilty of the culpable homicide of Rebecca Tollan by supplying her with high purity cocaine.  The 23-year-old died on the 15th of July 2019 at Martin Stewart’s home. Rebecca had recently given birth a few weeks prior and was on her [...]

Sharam Faraje was jailed for five years for the rape of a woman who was asleep with he carried out the sex attack on her. At the time he was on three separate bail orders. He assaulted the woman at her home in Cathcart. The woman provided a statement to [...]

David Findlay has become the first person to be found guilty of ‘sex without consent’. Instead of being charged with the crime of rape, he was prosecuted under Scotland’s new domestic abuse laws. At trial the jury found him guilty of having sex with his ex-partner without her consent as [...]

Lewis Ritchie was convicted after a two-day summary trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. The court heard that he sexually assaulted three women.  At trial it was heard in evidence that Ritchie forced his tongue in one woman’s mouth and demanded that she give him a ‘proper kiss’. The incident took [...]

Paul Lyons was caught with an iPhone in his cell at HMP Shotts. He appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and the court heard that his cell was searched, and a phone was found inside a hidden compartment of a box.  Lyons was sent to prison in 2010 for culpable homicide. [...]

Brian Dailey, aged 75, was convicted of sexually abusing 11 children whilst being employed at a school in Edinburgh.  He subjected boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 12 to sexual abuse over a number of years from 1969 until 1979. Dailey had previously been convicted of similar [...]

Mark Francis Quinn was convicted of being involved in supplying millions of pounds of amphetamine into Scotland during 2013 and 2014. Quinn fled the UK in 2014 and was later arrested in Maastricht on an international arrest warrant, which resulted in him being extradited back to Scotland. He was linked [...]

Margaret Ferrier was sentenced to a Community Payback Order with 270 hours of unpaid work for culpably and recklessly exposing the public to the risk of infection, illness and death.  In sentencing Ferrier, Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull stated that the justification for her actions was ‘unconvincing’. Ferried found it difficult [...]