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.
13. Boxing coach banned from keeping animals
Edinburgh boxing coach Adil Sheikh, 49, failed to provide adequate care for the 17 animals that he kept in the back garden of his home at the capital’s Chesser area. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the 12 adult rabbits and five babies suffered from malnutrition and matted coats and some had overgrown teeth that were growing into their skulls. The court heard the rabbits did not have a proper environment to live in and had suffered injuries due to them fighting with another after not being separated properly. Some of the animals had ears and mutilated eyes and nose causing discomfort and distress ultimately leading to debilitating conditions. The Scottish SPCA animal welfare charity has said it is “disappointed” in the court sentence stating he deserved “a longer ban”. The charity was alerted to the neglect by a concerned member of the public after Sheikh had tried to sell some of the pets on Gumtree and inspectors attended his home in March 2023. Sheriff Charles Walls sentenced Sheikh to pay a fine of £380 and issued a ban prohibiting him from keeping or owning animals for three years. | Alexander Lawrie
14. Notorious rapist has sentence extended
A notorious Scots rapist who faked his own death and fled to the US in an attempt to evade justice has had his prison sentence extended after he was caught with a mobile phone in his cell. Kim Avis carried out a decade-long campaign of sexually assaulting women and children while living in Inverness between 2006 and 2017. The eccentric busker and market trader then fled the country and staged a drowning to avoid charges but was tracked down and arrested by US marshals before being extradited back to Scotland. He was subsequently jailed for 15 years after being convicted of charges including rape and sexual assault following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2021. Avis, now 60, was back in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last week where he admitted possessing a mobile phone while serving his sentence at HMP Edinburgh. The court was told two prison officers were “operating a mobile phone detection device which gave an indication of a phone being used” in a nearby cell at around 5pm on May 20 last year. Sheriff Joseph Stewart sentenced the rapist to a two month custodial sentence that will run consecutively to his current sentence. | Monterey County Sheriff’s Office