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.
9. Guilty of sexually assaulting two women
John Gerard, 35, has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after being found guilty of groping two women. He grabbed one young woman from behind before grinding his groin into her while the pair worked together at an Edinburgh Fringe show in 2018. Gerard also intentionally touched the bottom of a duty manager as he squeezed past the woman behind the bar at a popular capital restaurant in 2021. Gerard, from of the city’s Wester Hailes, stood trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month after denying the two sex assaults but was found guilty by a sheriff. On February 19 he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for two years. Gerard was also placed on a supervision order for two years and told he must carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community within nine months Photo: Alexander Lawrie
10. Police custody officer's sexual assaults on staff nights out
Rishi Bawa, 35, groped two women while socialising with police officers and civilian employees in pubs in Edinburgh city centre. Bawa, who worked in the custody area of the capital’s St Leonard’s police station, also fondled the buttocks and penis of a male colleague during a separate drunken incident. Bawa had resigned from his custody job after successfully applying to become a police officer but was forced to ditch his career plans with Police Scotland following his arrest in 2022. Bawa, from Stirling, pleaded guilty to three sex assaults when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in December and he returned to the dock for sentencing on February 27. The sheriff sentenced Bawa to pay a fine of £840 and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. Photo: Alexander Lawrie
11. Sexual offences against young girls over a 16 year period
John O’Flaherty, 67, was found guilty of seven charges, with offences occurring between 1980 and 1996. He committed rapes and assaults against four victims at various locations across the north and south west of Edinburgh including in a lock-up garage or storage unit and an ice cream van. One woman was raped while she slept. Two of O’Flaherty’s victims were young girls – one aged around seven years old when she was assaulted – while another was a vulnerable teenager. He chased one victim with Samurai swords threatening to kill her. O’Flaherty had been found guilty of the charges at a trial in May last year. At the High Court in Livingston on February 27, he was given a lifelong restriction order and will spend at least five years in prison. Photo: Police Scotland