Among them was a stables boss who was found guilty of sexually assaulting women at his workplace, and an Edinburgh DJ who recorded a schoolgirl performing sex acts.
Footballers were also key to two cases, with a former Hibs player banned from contacting his ex-partner, while a teenager was convicted of headbutting a Hearts star in an Edinburgh pub.
See our photo gallery below for the full monthly courts round-up.
1. Train station roof chase fall
Leo Brown, 22, and Taylor Welsh, 20, were part of a group who chased victim Scott Christie onto the roof of Edinburgh’s Waverley Station leading him to fall 30 feet onto overhead lines. Scott, 18, crashed onto rail tracks in front of a waiting train and suffered shocking injuries including second degree burns to 35 per cent of his body. The teen was also left with a serious head injury, a large gouge out of his thigh and bruising to his lungs during the horror incident in May, 2023. He spent two months recovering in hospital following the fall, has been left permanently scarred and now suffers from PTSD and nightmares. Brown and Welsh, both from Edinburgh, were sentenced on Friday, May 10, where Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss said their actions had had a “profound effect” on the teen. Brown was sentenced to 240 hours of unpaid work and Welsh was told she must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work. | Alexander Lawrie
2. Gambling addict embezzled £400,000
A gambling addict who embezzled more than £400,000 from two historic Scots estates while working as a bookkeeper was last month jailed for 32 months. David Proudfoot was employed with agricultural firm Andersons Northern Ltd when he stole the massive amount of cash by transferring funds into his own account over a 10 year period. Proudfoot, 48, had responsibilities for managing tax affairs and VAT returns for clients including the Bemesyde Estate in the Scottish Borders and the Auchlyne Estate in Perthshire. He covered up the scam by producing fake HMRC tax references and invoices and spent the “overwhelming majority” of the cash on his out of control gambling addiction. Proudfoot pleaded guilty to embezzling £439,500 while employed with Andersons Northern Ltd, Station Road, Musselburgh, East Lothian, between January 2012 and August 2022 when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April. He returned to the dock for sentencing on May 30 where a sheriff described his offending as “a significant breach of trust over a prolonged period”. | Alexander Lawrie
3. Stables boss sexually assaulted women
A stables owner who sexually assaulted three women by pulling their clothes off and hitting them with a horse whip was last month ordered by a court to pay his victims compensation. Campbell Taylor carried out the sex attacks on the women and made vile sexual comments to a fourth victim about her breasts at livery yards he owned in Edinburgh. Taylor, 49, assaulted the women by unclipping their bras, pulling their trousers down to expose their underwear and striking one victim on the backside with a horse whip. The stables boss also sexually assaulted a woman on two occasions during shopping trips to a Tesco in Galashiels and at the capital’s Hermiston Gait retail park. Taylor denied the sex attacks claiming the incidents took place amid a culture of “practical jokes” and “horseplay” among staff and visitors at the farms he owned and worked at. But a sheriff failed to believe the business owner’s lies and found him guilty of seven sexual offences carried out between 2009 and 2019 following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April. Taylor, from Balerno, Edinburgh, returned to the city centre court for sentencing on May 9, where he was told he must pay the four victims a total of £1000 in compensation. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 12 months and sentenced to supervision and an unpaid work order of 200 hours. The court also imposed three year non-harassment orders in respect of two of two victims. | Alexander Lawrie
4. DJ recorded schoolgirl performing sex acts
Dave Angelo Valdez convinced a 14-year-old schoolgirl to perform solo sex acts for him while secretly recording the images displayed on his laptop screen on his mobile phone. Valdez, 25, also sent the child several videos of him performing sex acts during the sordid contact on the popular chat sites Emerald and Skype. The shocking footage of the teenage girl was said to have ran to around 20 hours and was discovered when police raided Valdez’s home in relation to child abuse images being downloaded in November 2021. He pleaded guilty to four child sex abuse offences at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April and returned to the dock for sentencing on May 26. Valdez was jailed for a total of 40 months across all charges and was placed on the sex offenders register for life. Valdez pleaded guilty to possessing, and to taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent images of children between April 23, 2019 and November 10, 2021. He also admitted to two offences of causing children to engage in sexual activity and causing them to look at sexual images, all between January 1 and March 31, 2021. | Alexander Lawrie