Man charged over crash near Elgin that left three in hospital
A man has been charged in connection with a crash in Moray which left three people in hospital.Part of the A96 between Elgin and Alves was closed for several hours following the incident involving a bus and a van on 20 May.Three people between the ages of 37 and 60 were taken to Dr Grey's Hospital for treatment.A 37-year-old man has been reported to the procurator fiscal.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
The Orkney Assassin unmasked: How schoolboy, 15, escaped justice for 14 years for racist point blank execution of Indian waiter - and whose parents STILL believe 'real' killer is out there
New details have been revealed about a schoolboy who swerved justice for 14 years after his racist murder of an restaurant waiter. Michael Ross went on to be hailed for heroics in the first Gulf War as he served as a Black Watch sergeant. He joined the famous Scottish regiment at the age of 17 and progressed through the ranks, eventually becoming the sergeant of a sniper platoon - and his service included a tour of duty in Iraq in which comrades were killed. But he remained free for years before being jailed for the shooting to death at point blank range of Shamsuddin Mahmood at an Orkney Islands restaurant in Scotland. Ross was finally brought to justice when jailed for life, aged 29, in June 2008 - found guilty of carrying out the killing as a 15-year-old teenager. Now a new investigation has shed new light on Ross, as he and his family continue to say he was wrongly convicted. He was ultimately found guilty of what was described as a 'savage, merciless and pointless' murder of Mr Mahmood. Yet his parents are continuing to insist he is innocent and the 'real' killer remains on the loose, as suggested in a new Amazon Prime Video documentary about the case. Ross is seen here as a 29-year-old defendant outside Glasgow High Court in June 2008 The killing of 26-year-old Mr Mahmood came on June 2 1994 when a masked man walked into the Orkney Islands' only Indian restaurant and 'executed' his victim before calmly walking away. Ross's trial in 2008 heard that, as a youth, he harboured extreme racist views that drove him to hunt down and murder one of the island's few Asian residents. he became the main suspect just months after the murder, but police did not have enough evidence to charge him. The breakthrough came when a new witness walked into Kirkwall police station in 2006 with a note saying he had seen the killer in public toilets on the night of the murder brandishing a gun and identified him as Michael Ross. Ross's lawyer Donald Findlay, defending, insisted it was unthinkable for a 15-year-old to have committed such a crime, suggesting the killing bore all the hallmarks of a 'professional hit'. But at the end of a six-week trial, jurors took just four hours to find Ross guilty of murder by a majority verdict. Ross was subsequently sentenced to life behind bars with a minimum of 25 years. He insists he is innocent of the killing - and last month told the Orcadian newspaper that he was 'doing a 25-year life sentence for something I didn't do'. His parents have also rallied to his defence in the new documentary called The Orkney Assassin that will be made available on Amazon Prime Video this Sunday. Promotional material ahead of the broadcast suggests there is still 'a shadow of doubt still lingering and dividing opinion in the Orkney Islands to this day'. Speaking to the programme-makers, Ross's mother Moira Ross recalls the moment she asked the then-teenager whether he was a killer after his initial arrest. She says: 'I remember him coming home with the detective and he went up to his room and sat there, and I did go up and ask him. 'I said, "Did you shoot that man?" - and he said, "No". I just can't get over the look on his face when I asked him that.' Mr Mahmood had been living on the Orkney Islands for just six weeks before his death and was planning to return home to Bangladesh to wed his fiancée. His brother, barrister Abul Shafiuddin, paid tribute at Ross's 2007 trial, saying of Mr Mahmood: 'He was our baby brother and at least we know the person who killed him will be punished.' Ross was also found guilty by majority of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of the murder weapon and changing his clothing. During the trial, it emerged that his policeman father Edmund Ross had been jailed for hampering the investigation by withholding crucial evidence. Advocate depute Brian McConnachie QC, told the court the prosecution's case against Ross was based on 'compelling, unanswerable' circumstantial evidence. When the guilty verdict was announced, Ross leapt from the dock and tried to escape before being led to the cells - having been wrestled to the ground by a court official. He had been one of 12 soldiers decorated for outstanding service in Iraq in 2005 and was even mentioned in dispatches for showing bravery following two improvised explosive attacks in north Babil. Yet his downfall eventually came when a new witness walked into Kirkwall police station in 2006 with a note saying he had seen the killer in public toilets on the night of the murder, brandishing a gun - and identified him as Michael Ross. Ross had been questioned as a 15-year-old in relation to Mr Mahmood's death, after two witnesses had suggested they saw him wearing the same balaclava and dark clothing as the murderer in woodland a fortnight earlier. But he was only charged with lying to police and interfering with a witnesses, receiving a four-year jail term in 1997. His eventual murder trial was told now the anonymous letter writer, later named as William Grant, told of seeing Ross in public toilets near the restaurant, clad in balaclava and dark clothes, on the night of Mr Mahmood's killing. Jurors also heard that Ross had told a fellow army cadet as a schoolboy that 'blacks should be shot' and had textbooks scrawled with swastikas, SS symbols and slogans suggesting 'death to the English'. His father Edmund Ross tells the new Amazon Prime Video documentary: 'I didn't believe it. 'I knew my son for all that years and he never showed any tendencies or anything like that that I would expect him to go out and shoot anyone.' The Orkney Assassin: Murder in the Isles is being made available to Amazon Prime Video viewers in the UK and Ireland on Sunday 8 June.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Child aged 10 found with knife amid concerns of ‘youth violence epidemic'
A child aged just 10 was among 91 people aged 18 and under found by Police Scotland to be in possession of a bladed weapon in 2024. The shocking statistics prompted concerns of a 'youth violence epidemic'. It comes following the deaths of teenagers Amen Teklay and Kayden Moy. Both died after allegedly being stabbed in separate incidents this year. Now analysis of Police Scotland stop and search data by the justice and home affairs magazine 1919 showed that in 2024, teenagers accounted for almost a third of positive knife searches across all age groups. The 91 cases where someone under the age of 18 was caught with a bladed or pointed weapon equate to about one such case every four days. The data revealed a 10-year-old was caught with a knife in the east of Edinburgh in July 2024. Meanwhile, 12-year-olds were caught with bladed weapons in the capital, Glasgow, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, the magazine reported. In addition, more than a dozen children aged 13 – including two girls – were also found to have such items when searched. David Threadgold, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation said: 'Each one of the truly shocking statistics is a justifiable and evidenced-based reaction by the police to an increasingly concerning societal trend we now see emerging among younger members of our communities in Scotland.' He added: 'Each of these statistics is a real situation which created significant risk for my colleagues, as well as potentially life-changing consequences for the perpetrator, and sadly – as we have seen so tragically across Scotland recently – the victims of knife crime, their families and friends.' Mr Threadgold said that the 'solution to this problem cannot rest alone with the police', arguing for 'much greater and more effective preventative strategies' to be put in place across Scotland. Scottish Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said: 'These shocking figures are yet another sign that there is a youth violence epidemic emerging in Scotland.' She added: 'Each one of these 91 cases is very serious for our communities and potentially for those actually carrying the weapon. 'The only way to tackle this effectively is to have early intervention schemes that get to the root cause, and without this we will fail our communities.' Calling for 'urgent action', she insisted the Scottish Government had 'created a perfect storm by cutting youth work services, letting police officer numbers fall, and mismanaging CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and education'. First Minister John Swinney has already warned youngsters against carrying knives, insisting this is 'dangerous' and 'damaging'. But Scottish Tory community safety spokesperson Sharon Dowey insisted it was 'high time nationalist ministers woke up to the gravity of this situation'. The Conservative MSP said: 'These alarming figures lay bare just how drastically knife crime has spiralled out of control.' She said there needs to be 'meaningful punishments for those who use a knife' along with 'expanded stop-and-search powers for police to act as a deterrent'. However, she claimed: 'The SNP's soft-touch attitude towards justice represents an abject dereliction of duty by John Swinney's government.' A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'Stop and search powers should be used where lawful, necessary and proportionate. Their use in individual cases is an operational matter for Police Scotland. 'Police do use stop and search, and it is one tool to tackle violence alongside a range of other measures such as prevention and education.' Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland of Police Scotland meanwhile said: 'Victims of crime and people right across the country expect us to use all powers at our disposal to keep them safe. 'Stop and search is just one of those powers and one in every three searches leads to the recovery of illicit or harmful items, safeguarding our communities.' Mr Sutherland stressed that 'intelligence-led stop and search is a valuable and effective policing tactic in detecting and preventing crime when it is used lawfully, proportionately and in line with the code of practice, which was introduced in 2017'. This code has a 'dedicated section for children', he added, which provides officers with guidance to be used when when making a decision to stop and search a child. He said: 'We recognise that stopping and searching people is a significant intrusion into their personal liberty and privacy and we remain committed to ensuring that people are treated with fairness, integrity and respect. 'It is also a tactic that enables the service to keep people safe and assist in ensuring the wellbeing of our wider communities.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Embezzling mother who changed her name and swindled £500,000 from two different jobs by raiding OAPs' bank accounts is ordered to pay cash back
A greedy Scottish mother has been put behind bars after she swiped £500k from two businesses over the course of four years. Stephanni Houston, also known as Bryden, had previously raided cash accounts of a blind lady aged 93 and an 89-year-old frail woman in her relentless pursuit of money. She was sentenced to three years jail in 2023 at Keilmarnock Sheriff Court after having defrauded the pensioners at an Ayrshire care home out of thousands years earlier. Now, prosecutors have been awarded a confiscation order of £81,589.86 - with the possibility more cash could be pursued in the future. Speaking of the order, Sineidin Corrins, Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Serious Casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: 'This confiscation underscores the fact that prosecution of those involved in financial crime does not stop at criminal conviction and sentencing. 'Even after that conviction was secured, the Crown pursued Proceeds of Crime action to ensure the funds Stephanni Houston obtained illegally were confiscated. 'Confiscation orders have ongoing financial consequences, meaning we can seek to recover further assets from this individual in the future to reflect the full amount.' Houston avoided jail in 2014 when she was ordered to pay back all of the £2425 she defrauded while working as an administrator for Berelands Care Home in Prestwick. It comes as she had raided accounts belonging to three OAPs - a 93-year-old blind woman, a frail 89-year-old woman, and two men aged 83 and 91. After admitting fraud at Ayr Sheriff Court, Houston was ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work and to repay the money within a year. The court heard she had forged managers' signatures to take residents' money from the home between April 1 and December 21, 2013. Houston's deceit was described by a sheriff as 'a serious offence against those who are the most vulnerable' and bosses reported having to compensate residents for their losses. She told the Daily Record at the time: 'I feel hellish. I'm so ashamed of the mess I've made. I just want to say how sorry I am to the residents. It was a stupid mistake.' But in a matter of years, Houston was ordered to prison as she betrayed two more employers. The fraudster admitted emezzling £253,281.30 while working as an office administrator at Kelburne Construction in Kilmarnock from February 1 2017 to March 31 2021. Months later she began the process of embezzling £262,987.68 in her job as a book-keeper for WM Donnelly and Co in East Kilbride, swiping the cash between May 17 2019 and March 31 2021. A source close to the record said at the time it was 'clearly a greed thing' and pointed out colleagues had been 'scratching their heads' due to her Houston having a better car than her boss - a top-of-the-range Audi. They added her name had been 'Bryden' when done for the nursing home fraud but Houston when she went to Kelburne. The source said: 'Everyone got on fine with her in the office. 'She got a warning for the incident in the nursing home and got out of going to jail but she's obviously not shown any respect for the authorities or her employers. 'The day police came into the yard she was the one who showed them to the boss's office. She must have had a few heartbeats when the police car drew up that day.' A compensation order in the sum of £41,610.83 was awarded to Wm Donnelly and Co Ltd. A second compensation order in the sum of £39,979.03, was awarded to Kelburn Construction.
