Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Justice must be seen
Our dedicated team of court reporters were in the privileged position of being allowed into the sheriff and high courts.
Judges, sheriffs and juries are there to ensure justice is done and, as the eyes and ears of the public, we ensured justice was seen to be done.
When tempers fray, swinging fists and weapons come too handily to bear.
Jennifer Whyte and David Donald took retribution on a man who changed his mind about paying for Whyte’s “best girlfriend experience ever” escort service.
Hooded and scarf-clad Donald forced their victim to transfer money into his bank account then made off in the man’s BMW, which they abandoned nearby.
Donald was jailed and Whyte remains on a structured deferred sentence.
l After an argument featuring his daughter and son-in-law, vengeful father Stephen Keen doused the man in a liquid and seemed about to set fire to him.
Keen forced Stephen Saint to his knees and made him beg for forgiveness while his wife filmed them on a mobile phone.
When he was quizzed by police, Keen said: “I’m guilty. Someone hits my daughter, I’ll hit them.”
The 62-year-old cleaning company owner was placed on a curfew.
l Broughty Ferry pub boss Jeff Stewart was spared prison despite throttling a woman as she lay in bed and sending her a string of abusive messages over a five-month period.
The owner of The Anchor bar, who already had a domestic abuse conviction, blamed the strain of lockdown on his business.
l Former Dundee player John Carling was back in court in June for attempting to strike his neighbour with a baseball bat in a long-running dispute.
The 46-year-old, who was also on the books of Arbroath, also struggled with police.
What’s yours is mine, according to some, especially if it pays off gambling debts.
l Former Dundee and Scotland U21 international goalkeeper Grant Adam was jailed for stealing money from his grandfather.
Adam, 30, admitted pocketing the cash from 78-year-old Charles Adam’s Post Office account when he had power of attorney over his elderly relative’s affairs.
The accused had been struggling with a gambling addiction and substance misuse at the time of the offence.
l The manager of the Nethergate branch of Dr Noodles takeaway in Dundee was jailed for helping herself to nearly £50,000 to fund a lifestyle “well above her means”.
The court heard Jade Gibson was caught when staff became concerned by the number of cancelled orders being processed on days she was working.
Gibson, 29, was finally dealt with after repeatedly failing to appear for court hearings.
l Spurned stalker Bea Burgyan took revenge on the married man with whom she had started a relationship. She placed a tracker on his car, took pictures of his home in Dundee and sent a sex video to his wife. She was made the subject of a non-harassment order.
l A long investigation into apparent dodgy dealings at a Dundee City Council department led to court with the conviction of Iain Gardyne.
The former Dundee City Council supervisor stole thousands of pounds worth of smoke alarms and sensors and flogged them on eBay to help clear his gambling debts.
The court was told how a fraud investigation was launched after the council was alerted to Gardyne’s eBay account by a Courier reporter.
The department where Gardyne was employed as an electrical supervisor has been at the centre of a major corporate fraud investigation after a contract to provide heat, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors was awarded without ever going out to tender.
l Baker Moira Coughlin embezzled £12,000 from the Tayberry social enterprise company.
She was placed on curfew but with allowances made for treatment for her gambling addiction, for which she had been taking the money.
l The city has been rocked by several sudden deaths which have become murder probes.
Andrew Innes is due to return to court for the alleged murder of Bennylyn Burke and her toddler daughter Jellica at his home in Troon Avenue.
It is alleged he stabbed and bludgeoned the 25-year-old to death with a hammer and asphyxiated the youngster.
Innes faces a slew of other charges and has made no plea.
l Michael King, 27, and Thomas Henderson, 30, are alleged to have murdered Lee Small by punching him repeatedly, before stabbing him in the neck in the Douglas area of the city on September 8.
They have made no plea and a trial date is yet to be set.
l Kenneth Melville allegedly murdered 47-year-old Yvonne Barr at an address on Aboyne Avenue on Bonfire Night.
He has been ordered to stand trial at a later date.
l The flood of sex offenders flowing through the courts shows no sign of easing.
Snapchat creep Jason O’Neil avoided prison despite filming a woman engaged in a sex act and sending the footage to her friends and family.
The 27-year-old’s “appalling breach of trust” was punished with unpaid work, supervision and three years on the sex offenders register.
l At the High Court in Edinburgh, Dundee takeaway boss Ghulam Bajwa was jailed for the years of abuse and rape of a small girl and boy.
The unrepentant fiend continues to deny his crimes.
His solicitor said: “He has no sympathy for the complainers in this case because he denies the charges – it would be hypocritical for him to express sympathy.