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”.
Sign up for our Breaking Newsletter and stay up to date on the latest news stories from Edinburgh and the Lothians.
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.
5. Possession of explosives and indecent images of children
Edinburgh man Ryan O’Donnell, 37, was sentenced to 44 months in prison after being caught with a quantity of chemicals that could have been used to manufacture homemade explosives. O’Donnell, who pleaded guilty to an offence under the Explosive Substances Act on January 13, also admitted possessing hundreds of indecent images of children. On February 12 he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and will be supervised for 12 months following his release. O’Donnell stored the substances including potassium nitrate, nitrogen and sulphur, at his Edinburgh home. A rocket diagram plan was discovered alongside notebooks which contained handwritten instructions that would allow an individual to prepare viable, high explosive substances. Details on how to make a homemade firework were also found alongside a Kinder egg containing a low explosive substance. Altogether, 1.7kg of homemade low explosives substances were found. The court heard how police officers discovered the items following a search of his Dumbiedykes flat and Loanhead garage in April 2024. Police also recovered three computer tablets which were later found to contain 1492 indecent images of children between the ages of six and 14. | Stock
6. Pharmacist jailed for two years after sexually abusing women
Pharmacist Tauqeer Azam, 41, targeted two women in Edinburgh and Glasgow between 2021 and 2023. At Glasgow Sheriff Court on Thursday, February 13, Azam was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of two sexual offence charges last month. His name has been added to the sex offenders register for 10 years. Azam targeted his first victim in May 2021 whilst working in the Boots Pharmacy at the Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh. The court heard how the young woman sought medical assistance after noticing a rash on her leg. The 41-year-old took the woman into a private room without a chaperone or second witness where he asked to see her legs. After she partially removed her trousers, Azam uttered remarks of a sexual nature, leaving the victim feeling ‘scared and vulnerable’. Azam was convicted of sexually assaulting a second woman while he worked at Well Pharmacy on Nitshill Road in Glasgow in 2023. The victim had sought treatment for a rash and was taken into a private consultation room without a chaperone. Azam then sexually assaulted the woman and made inappropriate sexual remarks, leaving the victim feeling ‘violently sick’. | National World Photo: John Devlin
7. Hotel manager stole credit card details
An Edinburgh man who stole credit card details from customers whilst working as a hotel manager has been jailed. Blessing Bere, 49, of Cadiz Street in Leith, was sentenced to one year in prison on February 11 after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud. Bere, who worked as a night manager at a Surrey hotel is understood to have used customer’s credit card details to pay for train tickets in 2022. The court heard how the alarm was raised on May 3, 2022 when a customer staying at the hotel noticed a transaction had been made on his card to pay for train tickets. After contacting LNER customer service, the train operator’s fraud department then marked the ticket numbers, due to be used on May 6 as being fraudulent. When Bere presented the tickets on a journey from London to Edinburgh the number immediately flagged the tickets as being suspicious and a fraud alert. Bere was asked to leave the train at Doncaster so further enquiries could be made. He was met at the station by British Transport Police officers who noted that Bere seemed flustered and offered no explanation as to how the tickets were purchased. Further investigations showed that Bere had attempted to purchase a number of LNER tickets using different cards and he was subsequently arrested. Bere was searched and several items seized from him, which included several credit card authorisation forms for the hotel with customers’ credit card and personal details recorded on them. | British Transport Police Photo: .
8. Attempted murder of 63-year-old man
Terence Reilly was charged with attempted murder following a attack on a 63-year-old man in Loaning Road on August 6, 2023. Reilly was sentenced to eight years in jail at the High Court in Edinburgh on February 13 after being found guilty of assault to severe injury, endangerment to life and attempted murder on January 16. Detective Sergeant Sophie McWhinnie said: “This was a random attack on a stranger and Reilly now faces the consequences of his violent actions. His victim played a vital role in achieving this outcome and I would like to thank him for his support and hope that he can now begin to move on from this experience. Violence and endangering the lives of others will not be tolerated and we will rigorously pursue those responsible of such crimes and ensure they are brought to justice. We would like to thank the community for their assistance with this enquiry, particularly those who stopped at the time to help.” | Police Scotland