News from Edinburgh Sheriff Court

The latest news from Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Chambers Street includes an update on the pensioner who stole money from a charity to pay for her gambling habit.

A businessman who terrorised two grey seal pups with a large wooden stick at a picturesque Scots harbour has been ordered to pay a fine.

Richard Montgomery used an eight foot fence post to “prod and push” the vulnerable animals back into the sea at the harbour in North Berwick last year.

Montgomery, 62, forced one of the seals to jump around 10 feet into the water and was said to have left the second young animal “screeching” and showing “clear signs of distress”.

The shocking incident was halted when office workers ran from their workplace to confront the man who quickly left the scene on his pushbike. 

The police were alerted and Montgomery – who runs a golf hospitality tour business – was arrested and charged. When he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court Montgomery claimed he was attempting to help the seals back into the water but his actions were slammed as “inept and ignorant” by a sheriff and and “ill-judged and ill-informed” by prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of conducting himself in a disorderly manner by harassing two grey seal pups by poking and pushing them with a piece of wood that resulted in one seal jumping eight to 10 feet into the sea and he did commit a breach of the peace at North Berwick harbour.

Sheriff O’Carroll sentenced Montgomery to pay a £1,000 fine to mark the offence.

An Edinburgh barber who carried out savage campaigns of violent abuse against four women has been jailed for five years and banned from contacting his victims for life.

David John Appleby, 47, attacked his former partners by punching, kicking and strangling them at his Edinburgh home over a 16 year period.

Appleby head butted and repeatedly stamped on the head of one victim, left a second woman unconscious after he twisted a necklace around her neck and jammed the head of a third woman in a door.

Appleby, who owns the Gorgie Road Barbers business, threatened to shave off the hair of one terrified woman and another was left with permanent scarring to her face after he pushed her onto a weights bench.

He also threw a glass bottle at a woman and poured alcohol over her head, issued threats to kill a second victim and was said to have racially abused a third.  

All the violent domestic abuse offences took place at two addresses in the Dalry area of the capital and occurred on various occasions between January 2003 and December 2019.   

Appleby denied all the allegations against him but was found guilty of 10 charges on indictment including assaulting women to the danger of their life by a jury following an eight day trial.

Following the verdict Appleby was remanded in custody. He returned to the dock for sentencing on 10 September when Advocate David Taylor said his client “maintains his position at trial”.

Mr Taylor said Appleby admitted drug use had been an issue in his life but now describes himself as “a changed man” in relation to his substance misuse.

Sheriff Iain Nicol said the social work report had stated Appleby had “minimised much of your behaviour” and his offending has had “a long lasting and possibly lifelong negative effect” on the lives of the women involved.

Appleby, from Dalry was jailed for five years across all charges and was handed non-harassment orders banning him from approaching or contacting all four victims for an indefinite period.

A charity manager who stole £30,000 from victims suffering from cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis to feed her online gambling habit has been spared a jail sentence.

Margaret Burnett was employed with the Leonard Cheshire charity when she stole cash from five vulnerable and disabled residents living at a supported accommodation unit in Edinburgh.

The team leader used the victims’ bank cards to raid their accounts and helped herself to a total of £29,900 over a 30 month period.

Burnett, 69, was eventually caught when bank staff spotted “anomalies” on one resident’s account and the police were called in following an internal investigation by charity bosses. 

The pensioner pleaded guilty to embezzling the cash from the residents between January 2014 and August 2016.

The Leonard Cheshire charity provides specialist support to disabled people including those with extremely complex care needs.  

Following her admission, a charity spokesperson described Burnett’s conduct as “a despicable abuse of trust” and said the organisation has reimbursed all the stolen money.

She returned to the dock for sentencing on 16 September 16 when lawyer Mr Gilmartin said Burnett has paid all the money back to the charity and had started gambling due to the stresses of the job.

Sheriff Charles Walls told the OAP, from Granton, Edinburgh, she had carried out “a gross breach of trust” and the offences had “required significant planning and execution”.

Burnett was placed on a 12 month supervision order and will have to remain within her home between 7pm and 7am for six months as part of a restriction of liberty order.

She was also ordered to pay the four victims who are still living £3,000 each in compensation.

Previously the court heard Burnett had worked with the charity at the supported accommodation residential unit in Edinburgh between 2003 and 2016.

Residents had their finances controlled by staff and all transactions from their bank accounts had to be officially logged in a cash book.

Prosecutor Xander van der Scheer told the court one female resident, who has since died, suffered from cerebral palsy while a second male victim suffered from multiple sclerosis.

Mr van der Scheer said Burnet had taken money from one man while he was bed-bound in hospital and was “physically unable to withdraw the cash”.

Burnett was sacked following a charity investigation and was charged with fraud in November 2019.

A spokesperson for Leonard Cheshire said: “This was a despicable abuse of trust by Ms Burnett, who was suspended and subsequently dismissed by the charity as soon as concerns were raised. 

“We expect the highest standards from anyone working for us.

“All relevant authorities and regulators were informed immediately, including the police who began investigating. 

“All service users who lost money have had this reimbursed by the charity.”

A businessman accused of upskirting a teenage schoolgirl at a Taylor Swift concert in Scotland has walked free from court.

Andrew Hunter was alleged to have placed his mobile phone up the dress of the child and recorded her genitals or underwear at the gig at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh in June last year.

The girl claimed she had witnessed the 65-year-old recruitment consultant repeatedly drop his device on the ground underneath her with the camera app open.

She said Hunter had put the phone “under my skirt” and believed he was taking indecent images of her as she stood in the stands watching the US pop megastar.

The child said she had been left “slightly weirded out” by Hunter during the incident and claimed a married couple standing behind her and also seen what he was doing and had alerted security.

Hunter, denied the allegations stating the girl was “entirely wrong” about what had happened and that he had been using his phone to search for a lost £10 note.