Edinburgh’s courts dished out sentences last month for crimes including domestic abuse, possessing indecent images of children and flying a drone packed with drugs into prison.
One man escaped jail after breaching an order from a previous conviction for possessing a haul of indecent images of children, banning him from owning a phone with access to the internet. Now living in Edinburgh, the man was chased by police officers through the chartered accountants office he now works at in the Capital after learning he owned a mobile phone with internet access.
. Pensioner abused girls at Musselburgh home
A pensioner who sexually assaulted two young girls while his wife sat in the next room has been jailed and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life. George Thomson, 71, began abusing the two children when they were both just seven-years-old at his former home in Musselburgh, East Lothian. Thomson enticed the youngsters into his dingy bedroom to play computer games before making them sit on his lap and touching them intimately. Thomson was found guilty of using lewd, libidinous and indecent practices towards one child between December 29, 2008 and November 30, 2010. He was also found guilty of sexually assaulting two children between December 1, 2010 and June 3, 2016, all at a property in Musselburgh, East Lothian. Sheriff Anderson jailed him for a total of 42 months and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for an indefinite period. Photo: Submitted
. Man flies drone with drugs into prison
An Edinburgh gardener who agreed to fly a drone packed full of cocaine and mobile phones into HMP Edinburgh in a bid to pay off a drug debt escaped a jail sentence. Calvin Begbie flew the £1,000 Mavic Pro drone over the walls of the Capital prison in a bid to supply prisoners with three phones, charging equipment and a quantity Class A drugs. But the 29-year-old was caught out after the aircraft crashed landed in the prison grounds in November 2021 and he was later snared after his DNA was linked to the crime. Begbie admitted the offences when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in August and he was back in the dock for sentencing on Monday, October 2. Begbie, of Dalry, Edinburgh, was ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work in the community to be completed with 12 months. Photo: Submitted
5. Sickening child porn haul
An Edinburgh man who was caught with thousands of indecent images of children was jailed on October 11 for 12 months. Thomas Carroll was found to be in possession of more than 2800 images of young children being sexually abused by adults when police raided his home last year. Carroll was caught with a large haul of horrific pictures - including depictions of youngsters being raped - that he had collected over a near four-year period. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the 58-year-old was found with a total of 2823 still images and 634 videos of abused children at his flat at Drovers Bank at the Wester Hailes area of the capital. Police officers received intelligence about the downloading of the material and turned up at Carroll’s home with search warrant at around 8.15am on December 20 last year. Photo: Submitted
6. Cocaine haul
Hundreds of pounds worth of cocaine and heroin has been seized and two people arrested after a drugs raid in East Lothian. Officers burst into a property on Wednesday, 11 October, in the Haddington area as part of an operation targeting the supply of illegal drugs. A haul of cocaine and heroin worth up to £365,000 was seized from the address, alongside an offensive weapon. A 40-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were arrested and charged in connection. Both appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on October 12. Photo: Submitted
7. Company fined for worker’s death
An Edinburgh-based agricultural company was last month fined £60,000 for health and safety failings which led to the death of a man when he fell through an industrial shed roof in 2018. WNL Investments Limited pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches at Dundee Sheriff Court on October 27. Andrew Rose, director of roof maintenance firm ARBM (Montrose) Limited, had been contracted to carry out a rolling programme of shed roof painting and cleaning. The prosecutor told the court that on June 9, 2018, Andrew Rose, 41, fell through the roof while setting up to paint the roof of Shed 2 at the North Esk Granary, Stracathro. The distance between the hole in the roof and the concrete floor was between 7.4 and 7.8 metres. Paramedics arrived and found that Mr Rose had sustained a severe head injury. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The charges libelled by the Procurator Fiscal and accepted by the company are that they failed to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that Mr Rose and his employees were not exposed to risks to their health or safety by falling from or through fragile roofs while carrying out work at height. The company also failed to ensure the system of work was adequately reviewed and monitored. As a result of these failings, Andrew Rose fell through the fragile roof and sustained injuries from which he died. Photo: Crown Office
8. Child porn offender's mobile ban breach
A pervert was chased through an Edinburgh chartered accountants office by plain clothes police officers after he was caught with an illicit mobile phone. Benjamin Grant made a run for it after the officers turned up to check his phone after he had been previously banned from owning devices capable of accessing the internet. Grant was convicted of possessing a haul of indecent images of children after police had raided his former home in Sheffield, England in 2020. The judge in that case sentenced Grant to six months of custody suspended for two years and placed him on a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). His name was also added to the Sex Offenders Register for seven years. One condition of the SHPO is that Grant, formerly of Sighthill, Edinburgh, was not allowed to own any device capable of accessing the internet without prior permission. Grant was in the dock for sentencing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on October 31, after previously admitting to the three offences including possessing and attempting to conceal the phone from police. Sheriff Ian Anderson told Grant he was “very much on his last chance” and issued a community payback order as an alternative to custody. The sheriff sentenced Grant to an 18-month social work supervision order as punishment for attempting to conceal the mobile phone. Grant was admonished on the two charges of possessing the device and failing to notify the police. Photo: Submitted