Stranraer Sheriff Court
STRANRAER Sheriff Court round-up.
A MOTORIST is facing charges of causing the death of his passenger by careless driving on the A75 near Castle Douglas.
Sean Kirby, 42, from South Shields, died near the Rhonehouse to Tongland road junction in September last year.
Mark Potts, 29, of Chatsworth Road, Jarrow, appeared at Dumfries Sheriff Court in connection with the incident.
No plea or declaration was made and the case was continued.
Mr Potts is alleged to have lost control of the car and swerved into the opposite carriageway.
He was also accused of driving without insurance and without a licence.
TWO Whithorn men will go on trial at Stranraer Sheriff Court in April after pleading not guilty to assault.
Twenty-two-year old Calvyn Alexander, 13 Greencroft and 17-year-old Joe Jolly, 8-10 Isle Street, deny assaulting Christopher McQuarrie in King's Road, Whithorn, on September 25, by pursuing him, knocking him to the ground, and repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body to his injury.
ASSAULTING another man at the weekend led to a fine of 200 for a Stranraer man at the town's sheriff court on Monday.
Ian Wilson, 20, of 4 Fairhurst Road, appeared from custody and admitted assaulting Matthew Allison by punching him on the head in George Street, Stranraer, last Saturday night.
Depute fiscal Nadine Dormer said the incident happened at about 7pm when the accused had been walking home along George Street with two others.
Ms Dormer said that an exchange of insults began with the victim, who was on the other side of the street.
She added that Mr Allison had then confronted the accused who punched him and then with his two companions, chased his victim down the street.
Defending the accused, solicitor Margo Nicol said that Wilson had been drunk and did not remember the incident.
She added that he had known Mr Allison for some years and there was no bad feeling between them.
Ms Nicol added that the accused was keen to apologise for his actions.
A SPEEDING driver who caused an accident which left six people, including two young children, needing hospital treatment pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention when he appeared at the sheriff court in Stranraer this week.
Graeme Kirkwood, of 24 Beddie Crescent, Wigtown, who was dragged unconscious from the wreckage by witnesses, admitted driving at excessive speed, losing control of his car and colliding with an oncoming car, causing damage to both and injury to the occupants.
Fiscal depute Nadine Dormer told the court that, at 6.30pm on June 17, 2009 the accused had been travelling on the A714 in a southerly direction.
Coming the other way were a group of tourists who were travelling in two cars.
Two males were in the car in front and behind were their wives and three children – aged five, four and two. As the visitors were unfamiliar with the roads, they were travelling slowly.
They saw the accused come round a bend in the road at excessive speed and start to skid. The driver of the first car managed to avoid Kirkwood's yellow Fiat Punto by pulling the car into the nearside of the roadway.
The accused continued on – out of control – and struck the second car, a Toyota Yaris, almost head on.
Kirkwood's car then rebounded, colliding with a Volkswagen which had been travelling behind him.
Kirkwood was dragged unconscious from his car, which was soon engulfed in flames and completely destroyed.
Police, the fire service and three ambulances attended at the scene and six people were taken to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.
The five-year-old child had three stitches put in a cut over an eye, while the four-year-old suffered bruising. Kirkwood suffered cuts to his right leg as well as having whiplash and bruising.
Defence agent Michael Kilkerr said that Kirkwood did not remember much about the accident but he did recall that the road conditions had been damp and thought this may have caused him to lose control. Mr Kilkerr added that Kirkwood was a very experienced driver who was "very sorry" that this accident had taken place.
Sheriff Kenneth Robb decided to defer sentence until February 2.
A STRANRAER man who became a nuisance to the police when they were dealing with another matter was fined 280.
Douglas Ritchie, 44, of Lochview Guest House, began shouting and swearing at police officers when they were dealing with a public disorder in North Strand Street, Stranraer, on September 27.
At Stranraer Sheriff Court on Monday fiscal depute Nadine Dormer told the court that the accused was warned that if he swore at them again he would be arrested – "he did and he was", she said.
Solicitor Paul Feeney said that his client thought that the person the police were arresting that night was "not the perpetrator of the disturbance".
A NEWTON Stewart woman who admitted housebreaking and theft had her sentence deferred for reports at Stranraer Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
Mary Hickey, 34, of 87 Queen Street, pleaded guilty to breaking a window with a brick at Reid Terrace, Minnigaff, entering the house through the broken window and stealing a mobile phone, a tobacco tin and cigarettes on either October 2 or 3 of last year.
She also admitted a breach of the peace charge in Ayr earlier this month.
Hickey will now be sentenced on January 26.
SPEEDING on the A75 at 93mph resulted in a fine and disqualification for a local teenager when he appeared at Stranraer Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
Thomas Adams, 18, of Bridge Cottages, Stranraer, pleaded guilty to exceeding the speed limit of 60mph at Tannochrae Cottages, Dunragit, on October 19 last year.
Sheriff Kenneth Robb fined Adams 400 and disqualified him from driving for three months.
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
