Copfs

A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill is to take place more than seven years after their deaths in a road traffic incident on the M9 on 5 July 2015. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has lodged a First Notice with the Sheriff Court to comme

A former SNP councillor who carried out sex attacks on three women has been ordered to carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work. Café owner Lewis Ritchie, 38, was given the sentence following a two-day summary trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has made advances in how it manages sexual history and character evidence in trials, but there remains scope for further improvement, according to a report published today. It recommends that staff within COPFS have mandatory training supported

A rapist has been jailed indefinitely for attacks on a pregnant woman and a stranger he met on the street. David Hamilton, 31, from Glasgow, was given an Order for Lifelong Restriction when he appeared for sentence.

A 32-year-old Fife farmer has been fined £2,000 after deliberately damaging a badger sett. Peter Brown was sentenced at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after being found guilty of two breaches of the Protection of Badgers Act in Leslie, Glenrothes.

A serial domestic abuser has been jailed for more than seven years after being found guilty of assaulting four of his ex-partners. Sales advisor Rian Hood, 31, from Kilmarnock, raped one woman, sexually assaulted two others and subjected all his victims to violent attacks.

An 80-year-old man who murdered a woman and their young son more than 45 years ago has been sentenced to life imprisonment at the High Court in Inverness. William MacDowell was given a minimum term of 30 years for the murder of Renee and Andrew MacRae in November 1976.

The Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has thanked David Harvie who has stepped down from his role as crown agent of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) as he becomes a sheriff. Mr Harvie joined COPFS in 1996 and worked his way up, serving as director of serious casework and procurator

A woman who brought a racial discrimination case against the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has settled out of court with the Scottish ministers. The case was settled after the Equality and Human Rights Commission funded the eight-day final hearing through its legal support schem

A man has been jailed for more than four years for the rape of a young woman who was walking home after a night out. Twenty-one-year-old Jeffery Oviasogie, from Aberdeen, attacked his victim as she took a short cut through public gardens in the early hours of the morning.

Scottish prosecutors staged a mock trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court to highlight racially aggravated hate crime. Equality representatives from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) helped organise the event to raise awareness of the legislation on race-related hate crimes and how thes

A rapist who beat and tortured several partners has been jailed indefinitely after posthumous testimony from two victims. Unemployed Alexander Thomson, 42, of Broxburn, West Lothian, was made the subject of an order for lifelong restriction at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday.

A rapist who was extradited from France to stand trial in Scotland has been jailed nine years after he absconded whilst on bail. In November 2013, Remus Covaciu failed to appear at the High Court in Edinburgh to face charges including the rape of a young woman outside a nightclub.

A serial abuser who raped women he met through online dating sites and social media has been jailed for 13 years. Ian Ramsay, a farmhand from Kelso in the Borders, subjected partners and ex-partners to serious sexual attacks and violence.

A 28-year-old man who kept and trained dogs for fighting has been sentenced to 210 days' imprisonment, banned from keeping animals for 15 years and fined £1,800 for firearms offences. Rhys Davies, a former gamekeeper at Millden Estate near Glenesk, was sentenced at Forfar Sheriff Court after p