Edinburgh’s courts dished out sentences in February for crimes including sexual assaults, animal abuse, assault, fire-raising and downloading child sex abuse images.
Among those in the city's courts last month was a funeral director who sexually assaulted a colleague when he groped her bottom as they worked together at an Edinburgh business. While, a thug who smashed a bottle over the head of a stranger during violent disturbance in the city was jailed for 18 months.
A teaching assistant who crashed her car into a house causing £200,000 worth of damage after she passed out while fasting during the holy month of Ramada was sentenced. As was an Edinburgh man who was placed on the Sex Offenders Register after being found guilty of groping two women.
A man was jailed for six years for sexual offences against two women in the West Lothian area. And, an Edinburgh man was given a lifelong restriction order and will spend at least five years in jail for sexually assaulting women and girls over the course of 16 years during the 1980s and 90s.
A teaching assistant who crashed her car into a house causing £200,000 worth of damage after she passed out while fasting during the holy month of Ramada was sentenced. As was an Edinburgh man who was placed on the Sex Offenders Register after being found guilty of groping two women.
5. Thug jailed after attacking man with glass bottle
A thug who smashed a bottle over the head of a stranger during violent disturbance in the city was jailed for 18 months on February 7. Nathan Tarbet, 27, left victim Marcin Nalepa with a serious head injury after launching the drunken unprovoked attack outside the NCP car park at the capital’s Holyrood Road. Mr Nalepa was sitting on a. Wall with friends when they were approached by a group including Tarbet at around 7.30pm on September 13 last year. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told an argument erupted between the two groups of men leading to Tarbet walking to a nearby rubbish bin where he picked up an empty beer bottle before striking Mr Nalepa to the head. A witness to the attack began filming the incident from her home before informing the police. Photo: Google Maps
6. Homeless man jailed for fires at prestigious estate
A homeless man who was described as “a poor man’s Bear Grylls” was jailed on February 12 after he admitted setting a barn on fire within the grounds of a prestigious Scottish estate. Kenneth Coleman, 48, set fire to a large pile of wood chips causing the wooden building to burn down at the Dalmeny House Estate near South Queensferry on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told at its height the blaze was around “25 feet wide and 30 feet deep” and was located close to a gas supply and a biomass boiler. Coleman, who had been living rough on the grounds of the estate, also caused a second blaze close to a listed building within the estate grounds by setting fire to wooden pallets and logs. The court heard when he was challenged by two estate workers Coleman challenged the men to a fight and threatened to stab one of them. Photo: Stock
Kyle Sievewright, 20, was found guilty of eight offences against two women, including rape, committed between 2019 and 2022 at the High Court in Livingston on Wednesday, January 17. He was sentenced on February 14 at the High Court in Edinburgh to six years in prison and a further three years extended sentence. Photo: Police Scotland
Maryam Abbasi was speeding on the wrong side of the road before she careered into a garden wall and then embedding the front of her vehicle into a family home in Edinburgh in April 2021. Abbasi, 37, was heading home from her job as a teaching assistant at a primary school when she lost control and ploughed her grey car into the bungalow resulting in extensive damage. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the crash may have been caused due to the mother-of-two losing consciousness as she had been fasting during Ramadan at the time. At sentencing on February 14, Abbasi had eight penalty points placed on her driving licence and was fined a total of £715. Photo: Alexander Lawrie