There are number of proposed changes to UK driving laws which are likely to be introduced in the near futures. These include an increase in the maximum sentences for causing death by dangerous driving from 14 years to life imprisonment.  Also, an exception may be introduced for individuals driving for [...]

The Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary refused to pass a Bill of Suspension which sought the suspension of a warrant authorising the arrest of a man charged with assault to severe injury.  In November 2020, Mr Docherty, the petitioner, was charged with assault to severe injury. He [...]

A sheriff in Livingston Sheriff Court has determined that a charge under Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour against an accused’s ex-partner was able to be sufficiently corroborated by Crown evidence. The charge against the accused was that he [...]

The Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary has upheld a decision to impose a Lifelong Restriction of Liberty Order. The appellant was convicted of eleven charges against two former partners. The charges involved abduction, serious assault, threatening and abusive behaviour and stalking.  The first complainer described the appellant’s [...]

A prisoner, Dean Ryan, challenged a decision of the Parole Board which determined that he should not be released from prison on licence. Mr Ryan who had previously been in closed prison conditions argued that the Board had failed in giving the correct weight to certain aspects of his case. [...]

The appellant, JW, was charged with 19 sexual offences against six different complainers. The appellant challenged the trial judge’s decision to review orders to permit certain evidence to be led by him.  The appeal was made under section 275(9) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. At trial the judge [...]

Cumbernauld man refused an appeal at the High Court of Justiciary against his conviction for assaulting another with a knife nearby to a local shop. Gary Orr was found guilty and sentenced to a 30-month cumulo penalty. Mr Orr argued that the trial judge should have provided the jury with [...]

Sheriff Keir found that the death of a man in HMP Addiewell, Scotland’s only privately run prison could have been avoided. It was determined that there were defects on the then current system of working within the prison. On the 20th of April 2019 John Smith died, in his cell, [...]

The High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal by a man charged with 19 sexual offences against six different complainers challenging a trial judge’s decision to review orders allowing certain evidence to be led by him.  The trial judge revoked previous order which allowed certain evidence to be led. [...]

A man convicted of sexually touching a teenager has had his sentence reduced after he appealed against his sentence and lodged a bill of suspension seeking to suspend the sentence imposed by the sheriff at trial.  William Hepburn, aged 79 at the time of sentencing, was originally sentenced to 12 [...]