The appellant, DM, was indicted on charges of rape and assault against his ex-partner, EW, and sought to introduce evidence of her previous convictions for theft and shoplifting to challenge her credibility. He argued that the preliminary hearing judge improperly reviewed and excluded this evidence, claiming it was relevant to [...]

Allan Higgins, 52, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for a series of serious sexual assaults on a girl in Kilmarnock in 2023.  He had previously pleaded guilty to the charges at the High Court in Glasgow in October 2024. Detective Inspector Suzanne McNulty condemned Higgins as a "dangerous [...]

Michael Porchetta was deemed unfit for trial after a preliminary hearing in March 2024, due to concerns about his mental cognition, supported by expert testimony.  He faced charges for the assault, murder, and attempted concealment of evidence related to Aimee Cannon's death on May 7, 2022. Cannon's body, found by [...]

David McGregor, a 50-year-old offshore worker from Edinburgh, was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to smuggle a handgun into the UK.  US law enforcement intercepted a package in June 2023 containing a Sig Sauer 365XL handgun, which was intended for McGregor's ex-partner in Dundee.  McGregor had searched [...]

Ross Bradley, 37, and Connor McNeil, 28, were jailed for their involvement in trafficking cocaine and cannabis worth over £100,000 into Shetland. The pair, who were stopped by police at Aberdeen and Lerwick ferry terminals in January, had 124g of cocaine and nearly 7kg of cannabis in their car.  The [...]

Thomas Forrest, 24, inhaled nitrous oxide while driving through a McDonald's drive-thru in Stirling and later sped down a road, causing his car to briefly leave the ground. Witnesses reported hearing gas being released and saw Forrest repeatedly consuming nitrous oxide from a balloon. After police arrived, Forrest fled on [...]

Daniel Robertson, convicted of the rape of MM and AF and sentenced to seven years in prison, appealed on the grounds that he was unable to properly complete his testimony, which could have led the jury to make adverse inferences about his credibility. His counsel argued that his low intellectual [...]

James Murray, 58, and Connor Murray, 29, were sentenced to prison for firearm and drug offenses at the High Court in Glasgow on 6 September 2024. The two men were arrested in March 2024 after a police search of a property and vehicle on Greenock Road in Bishopton, Glasgow. During [...]

Three men from Glasgow, John Bonner, Christopher Laycock, and David Kelly, were sentenced for their roles in a major drug trafficking operation. The gang smuggled large quantities of cocaine and heroin into Scotland hidden inside fake solar panel generators, using a shell company to make their activities appear legitimate.  Bonner, [...]

Complainer AB alleged that Paul Cooney, a former teacher, committed lewd and indecent acts against her from 1977 to 1980. The case faced complications due to the Lord Advocate's prior renunciation of the right to prosecute, which led to a plea in bar of trial being upheld. The court considered [...]