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Thread: Batman trial-latest

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    Default Batman trial-latest

    Sheriff hears how baseball bat disturbance triggered major police response in Wick street

    WICK Sheriff Court has been hearing this week how a priority operation was mounted by police after their control centre received a report of a disturbance in the town involving baseball bats.
    The court was told the operation centred on Bremner's Walk where a group of men were seen to scatter and how one of them was chased by an officer.
    In the dock were Ross Stewart, 23, of 3a Ashley Court and his brother, Darren "Doa" Stewart, 22, of 59 Nicolson Street, and 16-year-old Morgan Stubbings, of 53 Murchison Street, all of Wick.
    Stubbings and Ross Stewart deny behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting and swearing at Debbie MacCann, at her home at 19 Bremner's Walk, in the afternoon of April 5, last year.
    Stubbings also pleads not guilty to smashing a glass panel in the front door of that house.
    Darren Stewart denies additional charges of abusing the police and resisting arrest and being in possession of cannabis resin.
    The trial, now in its fourth sitting, heard, previously, from witness Colin Smith who told how he saw Stubbings make his way to the door of the house, raise a baseball bat and bring it down on a glass panel in the door. The offshore supervisor said he heard female screams coming from inside the house and was alarmed.
    He told Sheriff Andrew Berry: "I was worried because my kids were out in the street. It's not the sort of thing you expect to see in your area on a Saturday afternoon.
    Constable Fern Macdonald said she interviewed, a neighbour, Patricia Salim who told her ,she saw Ross Stewart in the group of men and heard one of them mention the name 'Doa'.
    She said she pursued him to a house in Murchison Street which he entered but when she arrived, a man told her she wasn't getting in.
    Constable Alastair Macdonald said he interviewed Mrs Debbie McCann at No 19 Bremner's Walk. He told the court that she was "highly distressed and upset" but was able to provide him with a very brief account of what had happened, which included names.
    PC Macdonald said he was directed by a fellow officer to go to Nicolson Street where he found Sergeant Michael O' Brien restraining Morgan Stubbings on the ground.
    Asked by fiscal Andrew Laing how they rated the incident, Sgt, O' Brian said: "Obviously there was a risk to the public and to ourselves. It was a grave and serious incident." Police officers in Thurso were put on stand-by.
    He said that while conferring with colleagues in Wellington Street, Darren Stewart, dressed in black, had run past, directly behind them, onto Nicolson Street and ran up it.
    Sgt O' Brien said that they then drove towards Nicolson Street to "try to cut him off"
    The officer said he got out of his vehicle and began to give chase and shouted "police;-stop" but Stewart stole a march on him by clambering over a five-and-a-half-foot wall and he lost sight of him. The sergeant said that accompsanied by two colleagues, he decided to make for Darren Stewart's address in Nicolson Street, where another officer covered the back door.
    A man called Jordan answered the door and Sgt O' Brien continued; "We explained that we had seen Darren Stewart enter the premises and we believed he had been involved in an incident."
    Jordan Macleod asked if we had a search warrant and we told him we didn't, but suspected that Darren Stewart was in the premises. We went in, and Macleod moved out of the way."
    Stewart's solicitor Sheena Mair questioned the officers' entitlement to enter the presmises without a warrant and following a legal debate, the trial was adjourned with two days set aside for it, on August 18 and 19.
    Last edited by Nwicker60; 31-May-15 at 08:59.

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