Mitchell Skilling

An appeal against conviction by a man convicted of three rapes based on a contention that one of the complainers impermissibly referred to criminal conduct not libelled in the terms of the charges has been refused by the High Court of Justiciary after it found that nothing she had said would have me

An Oban sheriff conducting a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the deaths of two pensioners who were assaulted by a man with a mental disorder has declined to make any recommendations for systemic improvements in Police Scotland and NHS Highlands and Islands after concluding that there were no precautions

A lord ordinary has awarded expenses in respect of a now redundant petition for judicial review concerning failure to serve a dangerous building notice in favour of the petitioner after finding that the action could have been entirely avoided by more diligent action from the respondent. Aldi Stores

An appeal by a resident of Duntrune, Angus, against a decision to refuse a challenge of Angus Council’s grant of planning permission on reconsideration for a crematorium near his home has been refused by the Inner House of the Court of Session after it found no error in the reasoning of the pl

The High Court of Justiciary has allowed a Crown appeal against an eight-month Restriction of Liberty Order imposed on an Aberdeen woman who entered a complainer’s home without consent on two occasions, the latter of these as part of an attempted robbery, and ordered that she instead be impris

An appeal by a practising Catholic in England against the dismissal of his Sheriff Court action against the Natwest Group in connection to its display of Pride material in his local bank branch, for which he claimed £35,000 in mental health damages, has been refused after a Sheriff Principal f

A lord ordinary has retrospectively certified six expert witnesses instructed by two homebuyers to report on alleged defects in a property they purchased from a developer in their second action arising from the purchase of the property, having held that it would be uneconomical to prevent them from

A private hire taxi driver in Glasgow who was rear-ended by another driver while waiting at traffic lights has been awarded £2,184 in damages after the defender’s expert witness, who initially took the view that no crash had occurred, contradicted his own written report in light of the e

A Livingston sheriff who heard a preliminary proof in an action for child contact has made an ex tempore judgment finding that the father seeking the contact order had sexually abused his child once in August 2020 and then again at a contact visit in March 2021, with the action later being dismissed

A petition by a community council seeking reduction of a decision of Argyll & Bute Council to appoint a preferred developer in respect of turning land it owned next to Helensburgh’s pier into a supermarket has been refused after it was found that no duty of fairness was owed in respect of

A Crown appeal against what it considered an unduly lenient extended sentence imposed on a man who caused his partner’s car to crash after pulling the handbrake, having previously detained her and her children in his house and assaulted them, has resulted in the sentence being lengthened by fo

A cancer patient who developed severe Somatic Symptom Disorder after a successful operation to remove his kidney has been awarded £904,000 in damages after it was found that pain symptoms that he suffered following the operation were attributable to the anxiety caused by a last-minute change o

The High Court of Justiciary has ruled that a sheriff’s decision to conduct a jury trial entirely in the absence of an accused who refused to attend court and smeared himself with faeces to prevent himself from being transported amounted to a miscarriage of justice as he had been excluded from

A sheriff in the All-Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court at Edinburgh has refused a motion for an interim payment of expenses in an action with an agreed final accounting of £30,000 after finding that delays in assessment of tax by the Auditor of Court was not sufficient reason to grant an

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the practice of the Scottish courts since 2013 in relation to the admission of evidence in trials for sexual offences is liable to infringe defendants’ rights under Article 6 ECHR but dismissed two appeals on that basis presented to the court after finding t