Among those sentenced last month was an Edinburgh boxing coach who has been banned from keeping animals after he neglected his children’s pet rabbits so badly that one was left “unrecognisable”.
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A British Army officer who raped and sexually assaulted a woman at her Edinburgh was jailed in February. While, a ‘predatory’ man who raped a child in West Lothian woodland after travelling from Durham was jailed for seven years.
A ‘violent’ man who launched a ‘random attack’ on a stranger in Edinburgh in 2023 was jailed for eight years last month. And, an Edinburgh man who attempted to murder his estranged wife by repeatedly driving over her was also jailed in February.
1. Man attempted to murder his estranged wife by driving over her
William Budge, 62, caused ‘life-threatening’ injuries to his former wife when he drove over her twice on April 14 2024 in Muirhouse Parkway – three weeks after she ended their 33-year marriage. At the High Court in Edinburgh on February 5, Budge was jailed for seven years and four months. A non-harassment order, banning him from contacting or attempting to contact the victim, was granted for a period of 15 years. | Google Maps
2. Man abused two children
Edinburgh man Paul Harthill wilfully ill-treated and neglected two children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health over an 18 month period. Harthill, 47, was said to have over-dispensed prescribed medication to one child and on one occasion he issued a threat to kill them. He also exposed the child to drug misuse, caused them to live in unsanitary living conditions and failed to provide them with adequate food. Harthill, of the Capital’s Craigleith area, also induced the child to take controlled drugs, failed to take them to school and left them unattended for long periods when he had been left looking after them. Harthill will have to wear an electronic tagging device on his ankle and stay within his home address between 7pm and 7am for the next 12 months. He will have to carry out the maximum of 300 hours of unpaid work and was placed on a social work supervision order for 20 months. | Alexander Lawrie
![Alexanda Laverock sent sick sexual messages to a social media account belong to a ‘14 year-old child named Stacey’ after making contact with her in October last year.
Laverock, 36, asked the girl if she was “into older [men]”, instructed her how to masturbate and sent images of his erect penis during the deviant messaging.
But instead of speaking to a child, the pervert was in contact with an adult decoy from the paedophile hunter group Scotland’s Child Protection Team Against Sexual Abuse. Members of the group then tracked the shop worker down to his capital home and live streamed the confrontation to more than 70,000 of the group’s followers on Facebook on October 31. On February 7, Sheriff Christopher Dickson told him he had committed “a very serious offence”, but spared him a jail sentence. Laverock, from the city’s Tollcross area, was placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.](https://www.thestar.co.uk/jpim-static/image/2025/03/03/15/58/Caught-sending-sex-images-to-schoolgirl.jpeg?trim=0,0,1056,0&crop=&width=800)
3. Caught sending sex images to ‘schoolgirl’
Alexanda Laverock sent sick sexual messages to a social media account belong to a ‘14 year-old child named Stacey’ after making contact with her in October last year. Laverock, 36, asked the girl if she was “into older [men]”, instructed her how to masturbate and sent images of his erect penis during the deviant messaging. But instead of speaking to a child, the pervert was in contact with an adult decoy from the paedophile hunter group Scotland’s Child Protection Team Against Sexual Abuse. Members of the group then tracked the shop worker down to his capital home and live streamed the confrontation to more than 70,000 of the group’s followers on Facebook on October 31. On February 7, Sheriff Christopher Dickson told him he had committed “a very serious offence”, but spared him a jail sentence. Laverock, from the city’s Tollcross area, was placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work in the community. | Alexander Lawrie
4. Molested vulnerable teenage girl
Steven Auld engaged in sexual activity with a girl on repeated occasions over a four week period in Edinburgh in April 2023. Auld, 52, kissed the young victim on the lips, face and neck and attempted to touch her genitals over her clothing during the vile attacks. He was eventually snared when a younger child known to the teenager found out what he had been doing and reported him. Auld pleaded guilty to a charge of engaging in sexual activity with the teenage girl when he appeared at a trial hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in January and returned to the dock for sentencing in February, where he was placed on a community payback order involving three years supervision and 225 hours of unpaid work. Auld was also placed on the sex offenders register for three years and had a strict conduct requirement issued that includes the condition he is banned from being alone in the company of children. The sheriff imposed a further 40 hours of unpaid work for breaches of bail conditions. | Alexander Lawrie