COURT ROUND UP: Ross-shire sites used for a man who subjected a woman to repeated rapes and sexual assaults
It was another busy week for Inverness Sherriff Court.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last week.
A ‘victim-blaming’ rapist who spent more than a decade subjecting a woman to repeated rapes and sexual assaults has been jailed for eight years.
Alastair Coote (61) assaulted the female, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between April 2008 and June 2022 at locations in Inverness and Ross-shire.
Coote, a prisoner of HMP Inverness, was convicted at a trial earlier this year on charges of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting the woman.
Drug-driver in ‘heap of trouble’ after police halted high-risk chase in Inverness
Police abandoned the pursuit of a motorist who was swerving about the road and driving along the wrong side of the carriageway because it was too dangerous at a peak traffic time.
Officers began following 28-year-old Darryl Mackay, of Fuaran, Inver at around 10am on November 5 last year when they saw him driving out of Alamein Drive in Inverness.
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told Inverness Sheriff Court that the blue lights were activated because "the manner of his driving alarmed the police”.
Inverness man tried to bite police officer’s face at Raigmore Hospital
Police were subjected to a tirade of foul language and racist abuse after they went to help an injured man in Inverness city centre.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that officers called an ambulance for 47-year-old Mark Macdonald, designated as an Inverness prisoner, who was nursing a head wound in the High Street.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh said he was asked to wait with officers, but responded by shouting, swearing and used the 'N' word a number of times towards the officers.
Drink-driving Highland teen crashed into a works van just two months after passing his test
A Highland teenager who had just passed his driving test two months before he crashed into a works van had been drinking with friends prior to the collision.
Fergus Sherlock (18) of Dunachton Road, Kincraig got behind the wheel of his car on August 2, 2024 and collided with the vehicle at the Granish Junction between the A95 and A9 at 4.20am as he overtook another car.