A stalker who targeted a former SNP election candidate by turning up at her constituency office and sending her creepy messages was jailed and banned from contacting her for 10 years.
And an Edinburgh TV and radio presenter who embezzled £120,000 from her dementia suffering mother was jailed for more than two years.
Da Vinci rapist Robert Greens is back behind bars after he battered his former wife during a violent rage. While, a violent abuser who left his battered wife with injuries so bad she looked like she had been “whipped or flailed” was jailed for 16 months.
1. Man jailed for driving over rival
An Edinburgh man who ‘tried to murder’ a rival by running him over in a stolen car last year was jailed in July. Christopher Pearson, 22, was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison at the High Court in Dundee on July 2 after he pled guilty on June 4. According to Police Scotland, Pearson tried to murder a 22-year-old man within Lochend Park on Sunday, 2 April, 2023 after deliberately driving a car at him. The car was later found burnt out the same night in Maplewood Park. Detective Constable Gary Lipscombe said: “This was a targeted attack on the victim, which could have killed him. Pearson will now face the consequences of his shocking actions." | Third Party
2. Take That fan stole thousands from pensioner
A Take That superfan who embezzled thousands of pounds from a vulnerable pensioner has avoided a jail sentence. Julie McFarlane, 56, befriended victim Irene Buxton before gaining access to her bank account and helping herself to more than £4000 of the widow’s money. McFarlane then splashed out on cocktails, a slushie machine and Christmas gifts for her children with the stolen funds. The mum-of-four - who is known to friends as ‘Mrs Take That’ - previously hit the headlines after she customised her Ford B-Max car in tribute to the popular million selling boy band. McFarlane was ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and told she will have to wear an electronic tag and stay within her home between 7pm and 7am for the next 108 days. | Alexander Lawrie
3. Violent rapist who defrauded women jailed
Christopher Harkins, 37, was sentenced to 12 years in jail at the High Court in Kilmarnock on July 12 for serious sexual and violent offences committed over a six-year period. His offences, which took place between 2013 and 2019, involved a number of women across Edinburgh, West Lothian, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Stirling and Paisley. Katrina Parkes, Scotland’s Procurator Fiscal for High Court Sexual Offences, said Harkins ‘clearly poses an extreme danger to women through his calculating, manipulative and violent behaviour’. Harkins pleaded guilty to financial abuse offences on January 16 and was found guilty of violent and sexual offences including rape by a jury on May 20. Harkins was also convicted of filming two women in intimate situations without their consent. Non-harassment orders, preventing Harkins from contacting or attempting to contact 10 victims, has been granted for an indefinite period and he has been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely. | Police Scotland
4. Serial rapist jailed
James Kelly targeted his victims, including several former partners, in the Edinburgh area over a six-year period. The 43-year-old was found guilty of 18 charges on June 17 following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. His offending behaviour also took place during car journeys between the Capital, Inverness and Fife. Kelly assaulted one woman to her severe injury by causing her to fall down a set of stairs, punching her on the head and pushing her on the body. He attempted to force her from a vehicle, kicked her on the body and choked her. Kelly assaulted a second woman to her injury and danger of her life by violently attacking her on various occasions. He was convicted of multiple sexual offences including five charges of rape. The offences took place between January 2014 and July 2021. In addition to a 10 year jail sentence handed out on July 15 this year, his name has been added to the sex offenders register for an indefinite period and he was made subject to a 25-year non-harassment order. | National World