Mitchell Skilling

The High Court of Justiciary has increased by five years the sentence of a man jailed on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault of two male complainers, including a teenager, following an appeal by the Crown. Michael McCarthy, the respondent, was originally sentenced to five years’ impri

An Orkney fish farming company has been unsuccessful in its challenge by judicial review of the decision of the Scottish Ministers to refuse two applications to develop salmon farms off the Orkney coast. The petitioner, Orkney Marine Farms Ltd, argued that the reporters for the respondent had acted

The General Teaching Council for Scotland has been awarded expenses in a series of unopposed petitions it raised against the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland for the disclosure of confidential material. It was argued by the respondent that as he was not permitted to disclose the mat

An appeal by a man convicted of two charges of rape against separate complainers after meeting them on nights out has had his appeal against conviction refused by the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary. Raymond Nyiam argued that the jury ought to have been directed on the issue of reasonab

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has ordered a local authority to pay over £1.3 million in damages to a man who was abused by his foster carer. The pursuer, A, now aged 50, averred that Glasgow City Council was vicariously liable for the acts and omissions of his carer, refer

The nieces of a deceased Irish citizen who executed her will in Scotland have failed in their application to have the writing on the back of an envelope containing a copy of the will recognised as an adjunct or codicil to it. Christina Cummins and Bridget Tierney, the nieces of the late Mary Downey,

A Scottish environmental charity has successfully challenged the manner in which licences for lethal control of beavers in Scotland were issued by way of petition for judicial review in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Trees For Life sought nine declarators as well as the reduction of 49 lic

The operators of a popular Glasgow bar have successfully challenged a decision of the City of Glasgow Licensing Board not to grant them seven consecutively running occasional licences for a pop-up bar in Glasgow’s Merchant City. Keasim Ltd, the operators of Malones bar in Sauchiehall Lane, bro

A sheriff has ruled that the purported assignee of a standard security had no title to enforce it against the original granter and was in breach of court rules by not lodging an unredacted version of the assignation it founded upon with the court. Giovanni Guidi granted a registered standard securit

A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has ruled that the operators of a store in a shopping centre in Glasgow were in breach of a court order obliging them to keep the store open but that their actions were not in contempt of court. Sapphire 16 SARL, the landlord under a lease of the pr

A sheriff in Livingston Sheriff Court has found that a charge under Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour against an accused’s ex-partner was able to be sufficiently corroborated by Crown evidence. The accused, JH, was charged with str

A Sudanese man who made an asylum claim based on his alleged involvement in an anti-government movement has had his petition for judicial review of the decision to reject his claim refused by the Court of Session. The petitioner and appellant, AHT, originally had his petition refused by the Outer Ho

The UK Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a woman who alleged that the UK government failed to properly implement two EU Directives on protection against workplace discrimination. The appellant, Ms Anwar, originally brought judicial review proceedings before the Court of Session after being un

A former architect who was erased from the architect’s register for unprofessional conduct has been unsuccessful in his challenge of the decision to remove him in the Court of Session.  James Thomson argued that the Architect Registration Board had sanctioned him excessively and that he h

The Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary has upheld a judge’s decision to impose an Order for Lifelong Restriction against a 24-year-old Aberdeen man convicted of several offences against two former partners. The appellant, AB, was convicted of 11 charges including serious assaults, ab