Statistics released today by the Scottish Government regarding the national prison population show a growing proportion of sex offenders amongst Scotland’s prison population. According to the figures, there was a 100% increase in sex offenders as a proportion of all prisoners between 2009 and 2020. A decade ago, just 8% of all [...]

Mark Kirkby and Ku Wing Kwok have been convicted of transporting handguns after pleading guilty at the High Court in Glasgow. The pair, who were involved in the sale of the guns at a golf club in North Ayrshire, were jailed for 5 years each. The convictions came following a Police Scotland [...]

The Herald has reported that the Scottish Solicitors’ Bar Association (SSBA) has expressed criticism of the Crown office app used to book Pre-intermediate Diet Meetings (PIDMs). Concerns have been raised as to the functionality of the app, as well as its overly-complicated user interface. According to Julia McPartlin, president of the SSBA, [...]

The appellant had appealed against the competency of three charges brought against him under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, in relation to exposing himself to children on social media. The appellant argued that as the original charges libelled by the Crown did not contain a locus and that this was only [...]

The Sheriff Appeal Court in this case has imposed a community payback order in place of an admonishment, following a Crown appeal. The respondent, John Donnelly, was convicted in February 2020 of assaulting his ex-wife. Following the two day trial, the summary Sheriff admonished Mr Donnelly and decided not to impose any [...]

Figures announced by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service show that 468 solemn cases at Sheriff level were concluded in March, indicating an increase of nine percent over pre-covid levels when compared to figures from 2019/20. However, the SCTS also announced that despite an uptick in cases being cleared, there has [...]

Research from the UK Parliament statistics bureau has shown a significant decrease in prosecutions for cannabis possession over the past decade. According to figures obtained from the House of Commons library, such prosecutions have decreased from 160,733 in 2010 to 110,085 in 2020 – representing a decrease of 32%. The [...]

Scotland has one of the worst rates of overcrowded prisons in Western Europe, according to a new continent-wide survey. The study, carried out by the Council of Europe, showed that Scotland currently has a rate of 104.3 inmates per 100 prison places. This stands high above the European average of 90.3 inmates [...]

Lord Carloway has announced a ‘cautious and incremental easing’ of current criminal court restrictions, starting from 19 th April. Summary cases in the Sheriff Court will restart again, restricted to three trials per day with two backups. He also announced that Justice of the Peace Courts will restart all business from 7 th [...]

Kathleen Ross who worked for an accountancy business who handled the finances for Campbell McWilliams – a communications company – pled guilty to embezzling £253,966 between February 2014 and July 2018 from the company. Ms Ross had stated that she had been pressurised by her now ex-husband into embezzling the [...]